Everyone has their own personal favourite when it comes to the sports they love to watch or play, and for me it’s football (soccer). However, I also enjoy watching a range of other sports as well from boxing to formula 1 and cricket to MMA. I fully understand though that my tastes may not be the same as someone else’s, like where I find the likes of golf and snooker boring, there will be others that absolutely relish a round or two, or even just enjoy watching these sports on the telly.
But what if we stop looking at individuals for a second, and take a step back to look at the bigger picture. What are the most popular sports in world?
Well, we’ve already kind of covered this topic when we took a look at the biggest sporting events in the world but this time rather than just looking at specific events, we thought we’d look at sports as a whole. Just to see what is popular in the biggest countries around the planet.
Now, before we get into our findings we fully expected football to dominate here as it did in the article we previously mentioned, and we were right. But it didn’t dominate everywhere in the world, with a number of countries having a different opinion on their favourite sports.
So let’s take a look at what each country’s top sport is.
Top sports in each country
Below we’ve listed a number of countries from around the globe and the most popular sport for each one according to a report by language experts Babbel.com.
- Afghanistan – Cricket
- Albania – Football
- Algeria – Football
- American Samoa – Football
- Andorra – Football
- Angola – Football
- Anguilla – Boatracing
- Antigua and Barbuda – Cricket
- Argentina – Football
- Armenia – Football
- Australia – Australian Football
- Austria – Football
- Azerbaijan – Football
- Bahamas – Basketball
- Bahrain – Football
- Bangladesh – Cricket
- Barbados – Cricket
- Belarus – Football
- Belgium – Football
- Belize – Football
- Benin – Football
- Bhutan – Archery
- Bolivia – Football
- Bosnia and Herzegovina – Football
- Botswana – Football
- Brazil – Football
- Brunei – Football
- Bulgaria – Football
- Burkina Faso – Football
- Burundi – Football
- Cambodia – Football
- Cameroon – Football
- Canada – Ice Hockey
- Cape Verde – Football
- Central African Republic – Football
- Chad – Football
- Chile – Football
- China – Basketball
- Colombia – Football
- Comoros – Football
- Congo – Football
- Costa Rica – Football
- Côte d’Ivoire – Football
- Croatia – Football
- Cuba – Baseball
- Cyprus – Football
- Czech Republic – Football
- Democratic Republic of the Congo – Football
- Denmark – Football
- Djibouti – Football
- Dominican Republic – Baseball
- Ecuador – Football
- Egypt – Football
- El Salvador – Football
- Equatorial Guinea – Football
- Eritrea – Football
- Estonia – Basketball
- Eswatini – Football
- Ethiopia – Football
- Fiji – Rugby
- Finland – Ice Hockey
- France – Football
- French Guiana – Football
- Gabon – Football
- Gambia – Football
- Georgia – Football
- Germany – Football
- Ghana – Football
- Greece – Football
- Grenada – Football
- Guadeloupe – Windsurfing
- Guatemala – Football
- Guinea – Football
- Guinea-Bissau – Football
- Guyana – Cricket
- Haiti – Football
- Honduras – Football
- Hungary – Football
- Iceland – Football
- Indonesia – Football
- India – Cricket
- Iran – Football
- Iraq – Football
- Ireland – Gaelic Football
- Israel – Football
- Italy – Football
- Jamaica – Cricket
- Japan – Baseball
- Jordan – Football
- Kazakhstan – Football
- Kenya – Football
- Kiribati – Football
- Kosovo – Football
- Kuwait – Football
- Kyrgyzstan – Football
- Laos – Football
- Latvia – Ice Hockey
- Lebanon – Football
- Lesotho – Football
- Liberia – Football
- Libya – Football
- Liechtenstein – Football
- Lithuania – Basketball
- Luxembourg – Football
- Madagascar – Football
- Malawi – Football
- Malaysia – Football
- Maldives – Football
- Mali – Football
- Malta – Football
- Marshall Islands – Basketball
- Martinique – Football
- Mauritania – Football
- Mauritius – Football
- Mexico – Football
- Micronesia – Football
- Moldova – Football
- Monaco – Football
- Mongolia – Mongolian Wrestling
- Montenegro – Football
- Morocco – Football
- Mozambique – Football
- Myanmar – Football
- Namibia – Football
- Nauru – Australian Football
- Nepal – Cricket
- Netherlands – Football
- New Caledonia – Rugby
- New Zealand – Rugby
- Nicaragua – Baseball
- Niger – Football
- Nigeria – Football
- North Korea – Football
- North Macedonia – Football
- Norway – Football
- Oman – Football
- Pakistan – Cricket
- Palau – Baseball
- Palestine – Football
- Panama – Baseball
- Papua New Guinea – Rugby
- Paraguay – Football
- Peru – Football
- Philippines – Basketball
- Poland – Football
- Portugal – Football
- Puerto Rico – Baseball
- Qatar – Football
- Romania – Football
- Russia – Football
- Rwanda – Football
- Saint Kitts and Nevis – Football
- Saint Lucia – Football
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – Cricket
- San Marino – Football
- São Tomé and Principe – Football
- Saudi Arabia – Football
- Senegal – Football
- Serbia – Football
- Seychelles – Football
- Sierra Leone – Football
- Singapore – Football
- Slovakia – Football
- Slovenia – Football
- Solomon Islands – Football
- Somalia – Football
- South Africa – Football
- South Korea – Football
- South Sudan – Football
- Spain – Football
- Sri Lanka – Cricket
- Sudan – Football
- Suriname – Football
- Sweden – Football
- Switzerland – Football
- Syria – Football
- Taiwan – Baseball
- Tajikistan – Football
- Tanzania – Football
- Thailand – Football
- Timor-Leste – Football
- Togo – Football
- Tonga – Rugby
- Trinidad and Tobago – Cricket
- Tunisia – Football
- Turkey – Football
- Turkmenistan – Football
- Tuvalu – Football
- Uganda – Football
- Ukraine – Football
- United Arab Emirates – Football
- United Kingdom – Football
- United States – American Football
- Uruguay – Football
- Uzbekistan – Football
- Vanuatu – Football
- Venezuela – Baseball
- Vietnam – Football
- Wallis and Futuna – Rugby
- Yemen – Football
- Zambia – Football
- Zimbabwe – Football
Our findings
Now that you’ve seen the list and probably found which sport is most popular in your country, it’s time to try and make some sense of the findings from the report.
Clearly the most popular of all the sports around the world is football, just like we expected. There are roughly 3.5 billion people around the world who either play or watch football, and considering that is nearly half the world’s population, it’s not surprising to see 158 countries on that list all picking football as its favourite of all the sports.
However, the remaining sports that appear on the list are a lot closer together in terms of the number of countries where they are most popular. The best of the rest appears to be cricket, especially in parts of the Middle East and South Asia with 12 countries in total where it is the most popular, although of those countries, the majority don’t appear to ever play at major international tournaments such as the ICC Cricket World Cup.
The third most popular sport in the list is Baseball, with 9 countries were it beats other sports to the number one spot. The majority of these countries tend to be in Central America, and also Japan where they are obsessed with the American-based sport.
Joint fourth we have both basketball and rugby, with each of these sports the most popular in six countries each. Basketball is mainly popular in some Eastern European countries and China, whereas rugby appears most popular in and around the islands of Australasia. Although Australia itself along with the island of Nauru both prefer Australian Football in their region, making it the sixth most popular sport by country, with ice hockey beating it by being the favourite in three countries which includes parts of Scandinavia.
Of all the remaining sports we have left, each appears just the once on the list. Mongolian Wrestling is no surprise only popular in Mongolia, with Boatracing, Archery, Windsurfing among other sports that join it on that list. One surprise addition is Gaelic Football in Ireland, which only became the most popular in 2018, and before that it was football. But there has been a resurgence in recent years.
And finally, the last of all the sports, American Football, which surprise, surprise is only the most popular in the USA.
What are your favourite sports to watch or play? Do you agree with the most popular choices in your country or does your opinion differ? Either way, let us know in the comments below and be sure to check out more of our general sports pieces like this by clicking HERE.
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