Most Popular Sports By Country In 2024

Last updated on July 13th, 2024

What are the most popular sports in the World?

When it comes to sports and popularity, football/soccer has no competition whatsoever. With more than 3.5 billion fans around the world, making for nearly half the global population, football/soccer is more like a religion than just a regular sport. However, this subject brings up an interesting question: what are the most popular sports in the world by country?

Considering that the popularity of sports depends on many factors such as location, culture, geopolitics, history, and even class division, different sports boast different popularity in different countries. This is what inspired us to sit down and conduct in-depth research to see which are the most popular sports by country in 2024.

So, without further ado, we present you the five most popular sports in various countries around the world, ranked from the most popular to the least popular. From the USA to Asia, these are the most popular sports at the moment.

Most popular sports in North America

1. American Football – NFL
2. Baseball – MLB
3. Ice Hockey – NHL
4. Basketball – NBA
5. Soccer – MLS

Most popular sports in the USA

1. American Football – NFL
2. Basketball – NBA
3. Baseball – MLB
4. Boxing 
5. Ice Hockey

Most popular sports in Canada

1. Ice Hockey – NHL
2. Lacrosse
3. Soccer
4. Baseball
5. Cricket

Most popular sports in Mexico

1. Football/Soccer
2. Boxing
3. Baseball
4. Mexican Wrestling – Lucha Libre
5. Bullfighting 

Most popular sports in Asia

1. Basketball
2. Cricket
3. Football/Soccer
4. Baseball
5. Table Tennis – Badminton

Most popular sports in Japan

1. Baseball
2. Sumo Wrestling
3. Football/Soccer
4. Tennis
5. Golf

Most popular sports in China

1. Basketball – NBA
2. Football/Soccer
3. Table Tennis
4. Badminton
5. eSports

Most popular sports in South Korea

1. Baseball
2. Football/Soccer
3. Basketball
4. eSports
5. Volleyball

Most popular sports in Serbia

1. Football/Soccer
2. Basketball
3. Tennis
4. Water Polo
5. Volleyball

Most popular sports in Europe

1. Football/Soccer
2. Rugby
3. Tennis
4. Formula 1 
5. Boxing

Final Thoughts

Judging by our research, it is without a doubt that the most popular sport in the world is football/soccer. However, there are certain sports that completely took us by surprise, such as the fact that baseball is the most popular sport in South Korea, for example. Or that golf is one of the favourite sports for the citizens of Japan.

We hope that you enjoyed this journey around the world and that you learned something new about what countries love which sports the most. Given that the popularity of sports fluctuates and depends on the trends, we will certainly get back to this topic in the near future and see whether there are going to be changes in the rankings.

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