Currently, it appears the most popular sports leagues are, in order: football (NFL), baseball (MLB), basketball (NBA), hockey (NHL) and then soccer (MLS). Do you agree? And if so, do you see the order changing in the coming decades?

38 comments

  1. Baseball is on a steady decline and basketball is much more popular with younger audiences. I expect soccer to grow a lot as well. The NFL will still be king for awhile but I do wonder about the long term future of the sport. I’d never let my kids play football with what is known about the risks these days.

  2. Swap baseball and basketball. Also college (NCAA) football is probably second after NFL

  3. I think depending on location and demographics, NBA and MLB should be swapped. Other than that, I don’t see this order changing significantly any time soon.

  5. As other posters have said, college football and basketball belong on this list. I. Also fairly certain the premier league gets higher TV ratings than MLS, so it could arguably be above it, or if you combined all soccer, it might go above hockey.

  6. The nba is doing everything wrong to grow in terms of popularity. It’s clearly all theatrics to the point where is almost a giant soap opera

  7. I’d personally say football, then basketball, then baseball, then nhl and mls last. I know baseball is technically 2nd but I don’t know more than 8 people who says “yeah! Baseball!” Lmao. It’s more that they benefit of season longevity

  8. I hope the NHL gets more traction in the US, it’s so fun to watch. Best sport in the world, nothing can hold a candle to NHL playoff games

  11. Ultimately, it really depends on how you want to measure popularity.

    The NFL is a ratings bonanza but it’s practically a sport designed around attracting TV ratings. Is the NFL more popular then MLB or do they just play 1/10th the games and nearly all of them on the day most people are off work? Is the NFL the most popular league or is it just something to put on in the background during “Sunday Funday”?

    Mind you, I like football quit a bit. I just think there’s other ways to measure a sports popularity beyond TV ratings or even money.

    I’d argue MLB is the most important sport. You could probably guess which QB has thrown the most TD passes but nobody really cares. NFL records don’t matter the way MLB’s do. If you’re a sports fan then you probably have a passionate take on who the “real” home run king is and it might not necessarily be who the record book says it is.

    I’d argue that NHL has the most die hard fans. There are very, very few casual NHL fans the way there are NFL and NBA fans. You can either name every single player on your favorite NHL roster or you’ve never watched a game with very little in between.

  13. I’m a little surprised that MLB is ahead of the NBA.

    Just the other day, I was listening to a sports podcast I frequently listen to. The hosts were answering emails from listeners about their show. One listener wrote an email saying “why do you guys never talk about baseball anymore?” They both said “because our show is on the internet now, we can monitor what topics people view much more precisely than we used to be able to. And the numbers make it very clear: NFL football and NBA basketball are by far the most popular topics, and there’s a dip in audience engagement when we switch to baseball or the NHL.” So I figured the NBA was a lot more popular than baseball.

    Part of this might be because the internet skews younger, and younger sports fans probably like the NBA better than MLB baseball. Obviously nobody would dispute that NFL football is the #1 sport in the country.

    I could see MLS moving ahead of the NHL at some point in the coming years. Hockey has always been a niche sport. Maybe soccer will continue to be a niche sport in the US but it seems to be growing in popularity very quickly.

  14. MLB always comes off seeming more popular than it really is simply because of the absurd number of games and the amount of people who couldn’t give a shit about the actual sport of baseball who go to baseball games just for the ambiance of the thing and don’t even know any of the players on the field or anything.

    I’ve literally only known a few people my whole life who had anything more than a vague passing interest in MLB, and having worked at a sports bar the popularity of NBA vs MLB in my area was not even *close*.

  15. I always personally enjoyed soccer (football) more. But I don’t really follow sports. That being said, American football is dramatically more popular here.

    Now hanging out at a bar and figuring out the rules to college football with my SO while getting drunk, has been really fun. So I cant say I don’t get the appeal.

  18. Generally, although regionally I’d say college football and possibly basketball beat out hockey and soccer.

    Maybe? This isn’t something I actively follow or care to think about.

  19. It’s important to note that while NHL is more popular than MLS, soccer as a whole is ahead of hockey. I’d argue by a lot

  22. Everything but the NFL, NBA, College football, and college basketball is pretty obsolete with anyone under 40

  23. Agree with others that basketball and baseball should be switched. Also, it’s a *big* gap to the big 4 (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) to soccer. I would add NASCAR after the big 4 and would not be surprised if F1 bumps MLS in popularity here in a few years.

    The problem with MLS is that we Americans tend to only follow leagues/sports where we are watching the best. Pockets of the US seem to be big into MLS (Pacific Northwest, NYC), but with soccer, you have the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga – all superior to MLS. Hard-core soccer fans here in the US may likely follow those leagues before choosing to follow MLS.

  24. NHL will definitely grow, maybe compete for the number 3 spot in the next decade.

  25. I don’t see it changing too radically. Football will be king for a long time. Baseball and basketball and maybe hockey will bounce around a little and swap places periodically, but that’s about it. Also, you could arguably throw NASCAR into that mix… although it isn’t as popular as it was 20 years ago.

  26. I think soccer has passed hockey statistically but it depends on where you live.

  27. Baseball over basketball? I don’t buy that. I doubt it’s even more popular than hockey.

  28. Baseball viewership is still pretty strong but it does have an out reach issue with Gen Z. Millennials and Gen X still watch it. Basketball has it’s fan but it is younger. NHL is very niche but most are fair weather like I only watch it if the Capitals are in.

    NFL is big because of fantasy sports and doesn’t have a ton of competition in the winter.

  29. Nationally, I would say that NBA & MLB need to be swapped and the NHL put ahead of the MLB or on the same level as the MLB.

    Going forward, I think that the MLB will continue declining and MLS will gradually grow. I don’t see the others changing other than that.

  30. I think both tennis and the golf PGA tour outrank NHL and soccer in the US… how are both of them off this?! Also agree Nascar belongs somewhere

  31. Yeah. Football and baseball go back and forth sometimes.

    I don’t really understand that. NFL plays like 17 games. I mean, why bother?

  33. I think in terms of team sports leagues there isn’t an ordinal ranking but instead A, B, and C groups. Some in A are very major indeed, drawing millions of people to major games. Others in C never draw six figure audiences, I imagine. I would group them like this:

    **A Group**

    NFL

    College football

    NBA

    March Madness (the final 3-4 weeks of the college basketball season)

    **B Group**

    MLS

    NHL

    MLB

    WNBA

    **C Group**

    Leagues that are still televised and still have fans but fall below the eight I listed above. Examples include

    Women’s college basketball

    G League basketball

    College “Frozen Four” (the ice hockey equivalent of the final four)

    College baseball (I’d place ahead of A, AA… due to talent pool and now NIL deals)

    Minor league baseball

    Minor league hockey

    Minor league soccer

    Major League Lacrosse…

  34. I’m a little surprised soccer hasn’t eclipsed hockey yet, but that’s probably because I’m in the PNW where the Sounders and the Timbers are popular compared to the Kraken who I had to Google to see if they even existed

  35. MLS will overtake the NHL in the next 5-10 years. It’s not there yet but it will get there. The league has been exploding with expansion teams and is drawing international talent and more money and viewers with it.

    Soccer is on the rise in the US and it’s not slowing down.

  36. Depends on where you are. In Georgia, the Braves are more popular than the Falcons. But if you are talking about the sports in general (rather than the league), then it might be UGA football

  37. I’d probably go:

    NFL, NBA, MLB being the across-country ones. Then the ones that are popular in certain regions, NHL (North,) NCAA FB (South and Midwest,) and NASCAR (South) (there’s probably others but those are the ones off the top of my head.) And then Soccer (MLS and FIFA) and F1 aren’t “popular” but they’re starting to get a bit more popular.

    I see a lot of people complaining about how NASCAR sucks now. MLB I know is bleeding fans and whether it or NBA is more popular is dependent on which metrics you measure. The only way NFL is moving from #1 is if the “football is too dangerous” crowd gains serious traction, either because there’s just not enough players or because tightened safety regulations make some people think the game is too boring as a result (already see the sentiment.) MLS could maybe pass some of the regionally popular ones if the immigrant population rises or Americans start feeling in a cosmopolitan mood.

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