Big Four sports leagues attendance in North America 2023 | Statista (2024)

FAQs

What sports league has the highest attendance? ›

Average attendance of major US sports leagues 2023

The average regular-season home game attendance in the National Football League (NFL) during the 2022-23 season stood at almost 70 thousand fans. This made it the highest attended professional sports league in North America.

More than 150 million individuals attended professional sporting events in 2018 across the five major sports leagues. And it's not just locals attending sporting events.

National Football League

It has 32 teams, all located in the United States. As of 2015, NFL games have the largest per-game attendance among domestic professional leagues in the world, and is the most popular league in the U.S. in terms of television ratings and merchandising.

Football/Soccer

The sport has roughly 3.5 billion fans worldwide and 250 million players across 200 countries around the world. The next most popular sports in the world are cricket (2.5 billion fans), basketball (2.2 billion fans), and field hockey (2 billion).

Football/Soccer (4 billion fans)

By far the most popular of all sports is the game known as soccer in the USA and Canada, but simply as football to the rest of the world.

Comparatively, the NHL averaged 96.1 percent capacity in 2019/20, the NFL hit 95.15 percent, NBA at 95.2 and MLB struggled to just 66 percent capacity. Few would argue MLB is smaller than MLS.

According to a survey from Sports Betting, the National Football League is the most popular competition in the United States followed by the MLB, NBA, NHL and in fifth place is the MLS.

While soccer's relevance has been questioned by critics for many years, recent figures indicate that Major League Soccer (MLS) now averages higher attendance numbers than both the NHL and NBA respectively.

eSports. This fastest-growing sport in America is interesting in that it can technically contain a number of different games.

What sport has the highest average attendance? ›

The Major League baseball in the US is by far the leader, due to a combination of large crowds and a long season of very frequent games.

Football is the world's most popular sport because it has the most fans (3.5 billion) and players in almost every country in the world. It is accessible to everyone, regardless of age, physical fitness and economic situation. Football gained popularity in the early 20th century, especially after the 1930 World Cup.

Football (NFL)

The National Football League (NFL), founded in 1920 in Ohio, is America's most popular sports league.

Of the major team sports, professional ice hockey has the smallest fan base in the United States, with 31% of Americans saying they are fans of the sport. Hockey fans tend to be very young -- 40% of 18-29 year olds say they are hockey fans compared to just 19% of those 65 and older.

As shown, competitive balance also has a large impact on ticket sales. While watching your team win is enjoyable, fans question the validity of buying a ticket to a game that a team will win emphatically. Winning competitive and close matches is a main reason fans buy tickets to watch their team play.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world with approximately 4.0 billion fans, and is particularly popular in Europe, Central and South America and Africa.

According to Sports Virsa, the top 10 hardest sports in the world to play in 2022 are as follows: Boxing (hardest), American football, mixed martial arts, ice hockey, gymnastics, basketball, soccer, wrestling, rugby, and water polo.

What is the most popular team in the world in March 2023? The team with the most fans worldwide is Real Madrid. Real Madrid now has 99.5 million Instagram followers, but will soon reach 100 million. Barcelona has 97.5 million followers after Real Madrid.

This is what inspired us to find an answer to our own question." The results of the test indicated that fans of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) had the highest IQs of all sports fans, with an average score of 112.6.

Does NFL or NBA have more fans? ›

Yes, the NBA attracted 5 million more people than the NFL, but that's not as many as one would think given the big difference in the number of games each league plays per season.

Football continues to be the most popular sport in the United States. According to Gallup.com, 37% of U.S. adults picked football as their favorite sport to watch. Football has been the favorite since 1972.

NFL vs NHL: Summary

There's no real comparison between the NFL and the NHL when it comes to which league draws more fans and which creates more revenue – the NFL is the hands-down winner of that competition since the NHL's numbers are just a fraction of its football counterpart.

Wrestling, mankind's oldest and most basic form of recreational combat, traces its origins back to the dawn of civilization. Carvings and drawings estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old, found in caves in southern Europe, illustrate wrestlers in hold and leverage positions.

The U.K. league will rake in $2.7 billion over six years, compared to $1.1 billion for the last six-year period. It's yet another reminder of soccer's skyrocketing popularity in the U.S. It may already be the fourth-most popular sport in the U.S. — and could surpass baseball in third later this decade.

Los Angeles FC lead owner Larry Berg has predicted MLS will surpass Major League Baseball in popularity during the next 10 years and Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas added it will be of higher quality than the Premier League or La Liga by 2045.

The World Baseball Classic is twice as popular in Japan as in the US.

One reason for the decline in viewership may be the lack of a national broadcast deal in the United States. Currently, games are split between several different networks, making it harder for fans to access and follow their favourite teams.

Twenty-five out of the 32 NHL teams are based in the United States. The other 7 teams are based in the United States' northern neighbor of Canada.

What is the fastest growing sport 2023? ›

— The 2023 Sports & Fitness Industry Association's (SFIA) Topline Participation Report was released today, announcing that pickleball continued to be America's fastest-growing sport for the third year in a row.

Pickleball is now the fastest-growing sport in America for the third year running! The sport, a cross between ping pong, badminton, and tennis, was invented by 3 vacationers on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, in 1965.

And The Fastest Growing Sport In The World Is...

Esports. Yep, you heard that correctly. Esports is estimated to be a $3.5 billion industry on its way to exponential growth that will likely eclipse $10 billion in the next few years.

Extreme Ironing

It is one of the most bizarre extreme sports where contestants take their ironing board, clothing, and Iron to the remotest and most dangerous location possible, and then, well, they just Iron!

Football/Soccer

250 million people play the sport in 200 different countries, and there are around 3.5 billion fans worldwide. The next three most popular sports are field hockey, which has 2.2 billion fans globally, basketball, and cricket, which has 2.5 billion fans (2 billion).

Hockey possesses all of these characteristics in its players. For various reasons, it hasn't clicked in America yet. Hockey is the most American sport that the American people won't sit down and watch.

The Super Bowl is the last round, where two conference champions compete with each other to determine the league champion. As per revenue, the NFL is the wealthiest professional sports league.

Most watched sports in the U.S.

More than three out of four people therefore follow American football. In second place among the most followed sports in the world is Basketball with 56.6% with its NBA champions.

What sport has the most black players? ›

While blacks predominate in football and basketball, whites predominate in all other regulated sports.

The NBA has by far the most racially diverse and left-leaning U.S. fan base of the four top team sports, according to the Brand Intelligence data: 54 percent of fans of the average NBA team are nonwhite and 42 percent identify as Democratic.

WHY DO FANS MATTER IN SPORTS? In an article by the LA Times, a sports psychologist identified that crowds could improve athletic performance if the sport included strength, endurance, and teamwork. Most teams understand the impact fans have on performance.

Studies have found that people who are sports fans have higher self-esteem compared to individuals with no interest in sports. Sports fans were also found to feel more fulfilled in life.

You won't find customers more loyal than in the sporting world. Many fans are notoriously devoted to their teams, often for their entire lives. They invest countless amounts of time, money, and energy to their teams.

According to a survey from Sports Betting, the National Football League is the most popular competition in the United States followed by the MLB, NBA, NHL and in fifth place is the MLS.

Well, an earlier article considering only the world's most popular sport (football / soccer) considered that here, where attendance per capita was the specific metric examined.

While soccer's relevance has been questioned by critics for many years, recent figures indicate that Major League Soccer (MLS) now averages higher attendance numbers than both the NHL and NBA respectively.

Although American football does not have a substantial following in other nations, the NFL does have the highest average attendance (67,254) of any professional sports league in the world. MLS has the second highest average attendance of any sports league in the U.S. (21,789), followed by MLB with an average of 18,900.

Is NHL more popular than MLS? ›

Conversation. According to research from Statista, MLS is now the 4th most followed professional sports league in the USA, leaving the NHL behind.

Soccer, also known as association football, is by far the most popular sport in the world, despite the fact that it may not be obvious in the United States. Soccer is the most popular sport in practically all of Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle East, Central America, and Asia.

Pickleball. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, pickleball is the fasting growing sport in the USA. There are now nearly 5 million players across the nation, with 2021 seeing a huge 40% uptick in participation.