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Sports, the word itself fills one’s heart with excitement and thrill. Sports is a way for many individuals to take a little escape from their stressful lives to relax and enjoy. Along with the amusement, sports also helps in learning various life lessons such as win or lose is a part of life, discipline, it also helps in overall development of an individual. Sports for the majority is a thing of joy and fans have formed an emotional bond with their favorite players and teams. The excitement, suspense, drama and the energy of the fans during a mega sporting event is amongst the best things to experience.
Here is our list for the most popular sports in the world –
Volleyball
Volleyball is a global sport with more than 220 partnered national alliances enlisted to FIVB (worldwide overseeing body for Volleyball) and it is most popular in America, Europe, Australia and Some parts of Asia. Volleyball’s popularity is nearly same amongst both genders and its popularity rise is astonishing. Volleyball is one of the easiest sports to play it requires just a volleyball and a net. The Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups and World League are some of the major sporting events in Volleyball. Volleyball, though televised less still has a massive fan following of nearly 900 million fans from all over the world.
Tennis
Tennis is the most popular individual sport and it is generally played against a single or double opponents. Tennis is also one of the most broadcasted sport in the world and boast over 400 million live viewers during a mega event. Tennis superstars like Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have massive fan following on all of Social Media. The Grand Slams, Wimbledon, the Australia Open, French Open and US open are the major sporting events in Tennis. Tennis is gradually becoming more and more popular all over the world and it is said to have over 1 billion fans.
Hockey
Hockey is a fast paced game (similar to football) and it is played in over 100 nations spread across 5 continents. Hockey has two variants as Ice hockey and Field hockey, the former is popular in Asia, Africa and Australia and the latter being popular in US, Canada and Europe. The popularity of hockey rises to its peak at the Olympics as it is considered the most loved sports in Olympics. Hockey is also recognized as the national sport of India (not officially) and Pakistan and it boasts over 2 billion fans all over the world.
Cricket
Cricket is one of the most prevalent sports in the world with over 2.5 billion fans all the world. Mostly relevant in the England, Australia and most evidently in South Asia, it is often treated as a religion among the Indian Cricket Fans. Cricket was considered slow and complicated but the emergence of the fast paced T-20 (shorter format of the game) and leagues such as IPL has caused a spike in the popularity of Cricket. Cricket has insane popularity on Social Media with some of its famous cricketer are the most followed celebrities all over the world. The World Cup, T-20 World Cup and Champions Trophy are some of the major events in Cricket. Over 125 nations are recognized to ICC as cricketing nations and it flaunts over 2.5 billion fans all over the world.
Football
Football is the most popular sport in the world in terms of audience as well as participation. Estimates are that football is played by 250 million people around the world with over 3.5 billion fans. People are crazy for football and the sport is relevant throughout the year with its leagues all around the world. The FIFA World Cup is the biggest sporting event in football in which over 200 countries compete to get the title of World Champions. Football has a crazy fan following on Internet and it has produced some of the great superstars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Maradona and Pele. The fast paced and simple nature of this game has made it a global favorite and with the emergence of the exciting leagues it is clear that Football is going to holding its no.1 spot for a while.
The popularity of sports has never saw a dip, the history of sport is as old as human civilizations and it is still the best way for a human to enjoy the thrill, suspense and drama. This is our list for the most popular sports in the world. This list is based on the estimated viewership and fan following of a sport. Some of the other very popular sports are Basketball, Table Tennis, Baseball, Badminton, Rugby and Golf. Please contact us for any suggestion/queries.
