The United States will be the place to be on the sporting world in the coming years. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2027 Volleyball World Championship, the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, the 2031 and 2033 Rugby World Cups, the 2034 Utah Winter Olympics… There will be plenty to look forward to. The results of the survey conducted by the firm Ampere Analysis on the most popular sports in the United States are therefore all the more interesting.
The first finding: American football, basketball, baseball, and soccer are, in that order, the most followed sports in the country. However, the hierarchy changes when Americans are asked to name their favorite sport. American football, still driven by the all-powerful NFLIt largely dominates the competition, being the favorite sport of more than a third of the public. Basketball, in second place, is far behind. And in third place… football, ranked number 1 by 10% of AmericansAs such, it has the distinction of surpassing, in that order, baseball, ice hockey, and tennis. Boxing and MMA, followed by golf, round out this ranking of eight sports.
As pointed out by The Economist,, the expenses devoted to football media rights have quadrupled in the last decade in the US. They even surpass those devoted to baseball rights. The difference lies in the fact that American baseball fans focus on Major League Baseball, whereas football fans are interested in several competitions in different countries. The United States has become the largest foreign market for the four biggest European leagues " adds the specialist media outlet. FIFA can rub its hands together, as it hopes to break revenue records next summer.
