What are the five most popular sports in the world? Some of the answers may surprise you!
1. Football (“soccer” in the U.S.) is the world’s most popular sport. Today, about 3.5 billion¹ people watch or play football. Football is popular in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, North America…almost
everywhere!
Fun fact: In a professional football game, players run about five miles (eight km).
2. The world’s number two sport is cricket. Cricket is originally2 from the UK, but today it is also popular in Australia, New Zealand, some African countries, and some Caribbean countries. In India and Pakistan, cricket is more popular than football. About three billion
people around the world watch or play cricket each year.
Fun fact: Four hundred million people-40 percent of India’s population-watch important cricket games on TV.
3. Field hockey is number three. Approximately two billion people play or watch field hockey, mostly in Asia, Europe, Australia, and Africa. In the United States, field hockey is mainly for high school girls.
Fun fact: Field hockey is a very old sport. In Egypt, 4,000-year-old drawings show people playing field hockey. Of course, the rules ofthe
game are different today.
4. Next is tennis. Today there are roughly one billion players and spectators³ of tennis around the world. Tennis is originally from
France, but today it is very popular in the United States, Asia, Australia, and Europe.
Fun fact: The longest tennis game lasted eleven hours and five minutes!
5. Table tennis (ping-pong) is popular around the world, with about 900 million players and spectators. Today, table tennis is especially
popular in China, Korea, and Singapore.
Fun fact: In table tennis, the ball can go more than 100 mph (160 km/h).
There are many popular sports around the world, but these are the top five. What is similar about all of these sports? They’re fun, they’re fast, and they use a ball. Is that why the expression “have a ball” means “have a lot of fun?” Maybe!
1 1 billion: 1,000,000,000
2 originally: from the beginning
3 spectators: people who watch