Top 10 Most Popular Sports in The World Based on 15 Ranking Criteria

Sports Show ^ | 09/11/2019 | Sourav Das

[SeekAndFind]

Today we are going to take a look at the top 10 most popular sports in the world. But before we do that it is important to know the importance of sports and criteria that should be used to make a ranking of sports.

Sports play an important role in our lives. From early childhood years where we take sports very seriously to the later years in life where we consider it as a hobby, fitness ritual, and sometimes even a profession. Today in every part of the world some sport is passionately followed. People take their sporting heroes as their role models and often have an emotional attachment with their favourite sports stars and sports teams. People in different regions of the world have different favourite sports. This makes ranking sports quite a challenging and difficult job. This is exactly why it is hard to ascertain the reliability and accuracy of different sports lists out there.

Here, it is important to know exactly what do we mean by most popular sports. The word “popular” could mean “most-watched sports,” “most played sports,” or “most revenue-generating sports”. But in all honesty, it would be unfair to rank the sports by popularity, if we take just one or two criteria. Therefore, we have decided to use 15 different criteria in order to rank the most popular sports in the world.

Criteria Used for Ranking:

1. Global Fan Base and Audience
2. Viewership on TV
3. TV Rights Deals
4. Popularity on Internet
5. Presence on Social Media
6. Number of Professional Leagues in the World
7. Average Salary of Athletes in the Top Leagues
8. Sponsorship Deals
9. Number of Countries in Which the Sport is Popular
10. Biggest Competition
11. Relevancy Throughout the Year
12. Gender Equality
13. Access to the General Public
14. Number of Amateur Players in The World
15. The prominence of the sport in sports headlines on print and electronic media

[dfwgator]

I caught the Cricket bug when I visited Australia and New Zealand, last year.

[Dr. Sivana]

And what is field hockey? is that lacrosse?

Field Hockey is mainly a girls' sport played in plaid skirts in prep schools.

[Hatteras]

Haha.... um, no.

Brought to you by the pollsters that had Hillary winning in a landslide. There is no way that 2 through 7 are more popular than baseball. Cricket... meh, who knows. But basketball more popular than baseball? Field Hockey? Tennis? Volleyball? (okay, I would understand maybe with women’s beach volleyball) but Ping Pong? Seriously... just... no.

[real saxophonist]

I meant ‘hurling’ in another context... 8~)

[1Old Pro]

Field hockey is not the fourth most popular sport in the world. The summary table says “Field hockey”, the article bizarrely combines field hockey and ice hockey.

Sounds more like horse hockey

[cnsmom]

What happened to NASCAR?

[Oldeconomybuyer]

lol

[decal]

“Timbelllllllll!!!!!”

[dfwgator]

I meant ‘hurling’ in another context... 8~)

Hahahaha!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPhckJEyU7U

[wally_bert]

The sport of Adrian Monk if he did sports.

[real saxophonist]

They embraced homos, alienated real Americans (gun owners), and will die.

[1Old Pro]

I meant ‘hurling’ in another context... 8~)

Hurling, or Curling?

[21twelve]

I love hockey too. I just read an article from Minnesota. More kids are on High School shooting teams (mostly shotgun/trap shooting) than hockey!

[real saxophonist]

LOL

[Pilsner]

Disappointing that the 200 meter freestyle for non-swimmers did not make the cut.

[dfwgator]

No Russian "Face Slapping"?

[Rebelbase]

As expected underwater basket weaving competition isn’t on the list.

[dfwgator]

Sounds more like horse hockey

Thank you, Colonel Potter.

[Will88]

Hard to believe that cricket is number two. They must be counting all of India and Pakistan, among others.

Not surprised to see basketball at number three. It’s pretty cheap to get kids started playing, and multi-purpose indoor facilities probably exist in many parts of the world for use by schools and organized leagues at various levels.

[notdownwidems]

I’ve noted that the world’s 4 most populous countries: China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the US, all stink at Soccer.

Apparently math isn't a popular sport either, nor grammar!