Global Sports Popularity in 2025

When it comes to the top sports in the world in 2025, global popularity tells a powerful

story. Soccer ranks number one with an estimated 3.5 billion fans worldwide,

making it the most followed sport on the planet. Cricket comes next with about 2.5 billion

fans, especially huge in South Asia and the Commonwealth. Basketball follows

with roughly 2.2 to 2.4 billion fans, driven by the NBA’s massive global reach and growing popularity

in Europe and Asia. Rounding out the top ten are hockey with around 2 billion fans,

tennis with over 1 billion, and volleyball and table tennis with nearly 900 million

each. Baseball and American football also make the list with hundreds of millions of followers.