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Sports journalists, reputable Internet portals and newspapers, as well as many famous athletes tried to rank the 10 most popular sports in the world. Opinions often differed, but in most cases, the list that was presented below was obtained. It is compiled on the basis of several factors, such as mass participation, TV audience, stability of the sport, profitability, popularity on social networks, etc. Most top sports are included in the Olympic Games program.
| No. | Kind of sport | Approximate coverage | Highest governing body | Most popular on continents |
| 1. | Football | 4 billion | FIFA | Europe, Africa, Asia, Americas |
| 2. | Cricket | 2.5 billion | MSK | Asia, Australia |
| 3. | Field hockey | 2 billion | FIH | Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa |
| 4. | Tennis | 1 billion | ITF | North America, Europe, Asia |
| 5. | Volleyball | 900 million | FIVB | Europe, America, Australia, Asia |
| 6. | Table tennis | 850 million | ITTF | Asia, Americas, Europe, Africa |
| 7. | Baseball | 500 million | IBF | North America, Asia |
| 8. | Golf | 450 million | IGF | America, Asia, Europe |
| 9. | Basketball | 400 million | FIBA | North America, Europe |
| 10. | American football | 400 million | IFAF | Europe, America, Asia, Australia, Africa |
Basketball
Basketball is the fifth most popular sport in the world. This game is most loved by teenagers in America. Basketball has captured the attention of more than 500 million viewers all over the planet. By the way, I personally am also a fan of basketball and have been playing it since childhood. And the most important achievement of any basketball player remains, of course, participation in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Golf
Golf is one of the most common sports. With 600 million fans worldwide, golf ranks high among official sports. Golf is also known as the game of the rich, as it is one of the oldest and most expensive sports. You can imagine the cost considering the size of the golf course! By the way, the highest paid player is Tiger Woods.
Tennis, 1 billion fans
This sport has a large number of fans, millions in fees, and thanks to it, world stars have appeared. Tennis is a game for hardy and physically trained athletes, but in addition to physical data, reaction and the ability to analyze the situation in a short time frame are important here.
Tennis is played on grounds (courts) with different surfaces, it can be clay, grass, carpet, etc. The game involves two players, or four in doubles play. Tennis tournaments are included in the Olympic Games, and separate competitions are also held; the most popular in this sport is the Wimbledon tournament.
In the 16th century, this sport was very popular among the French kings. But tennis was played indoors, and only at the end of the 19th century was it transferred to the open air and received the name lawn tennis (translated from French this means tennis on the lawn). The indoor game is now called real tennis.
Boxing, 550 million fans
Boxing is an ancient sport and is mentioned in Egyptian and Sumerian relief paintings. Games similar to boxing were played in Ancient Greece. Fist fights were included in the ancient Olympic Games even before our era.
The modern sport called “boxing” appeared in the early 18th century in England. This sport is a doubles contact sport. The essence is to strike the opponent with hands wearing special gloves. There is a list of prohibited strikes for which athletes can be disqualified.
Athletes compete in a certain weight category; today there are 17 of them. The winner is the boxer who was able to deliver a blow that knocked down the opponent, and he was unable to get up within 10 seconds.
Football
Today's football is no longer so much a game for championship as a game for money, which is why it is in our ranking. The main thing on which the income of football clubs depends is the sale of players. Also very important are the proceeds from matches, help from sponsors, advertising, and television broadcasts. All this is income.
The Spanish club Real is recognized as the most expensive in Europe - in 2019 its cost was 3,224,000,000 euros, and the players of this club are among the highest paid in the world. For example, the famous striker Cristiano Ronaldo was the most expensive player in the history of football from 2009 to 2013. Huge fees are paid to coaches; for example, Pep Guardiola, the famous coach of Barcelona, received almost 15 million euros when moving to Bayern!
Volleyball, 300 million fans
The game appeared at the end of the 19th century in the USA and became a kind of mixture of basketball, handball, baseball and tennis, already known at that time. The new team sport has become very popular among people of all ages due to its simple rules and accessible equipment.
The rules of the game are quite simple: two teams enter the field and hit the ball through the net using special techniques; the goal of the game is to score the ball onto the opponents’ court before it touches the floor, or before the opposing team makes a mistake.
Volleyball the greatest popularity in Turkey, Poland, China, and Brazil. And in 1964 it entered the program of the Olympic Games.
The most athletic countries on the planet
It is extremely difficult to identify such countries, because it is necessary to formulate a correct assessment, conduct independent calculations and a lot of other work. Nevertheless, there are still certain statistical results. If you still think that Brazil is the number one country because of the popularization of football, then I hasten to disappoint you, it did not even make it into the top ten. So, the top 5 countries recognized as sports:
- Russia.
- Canada.
- Great Britain.
- China.
- USA.
It is quite obvious that population size had a great influence on this indicator. For example, if we take the amateur segment, then American mass fitness will be more popular than in Russia. But the results of static research formed just such a list.
Figure skating, 700 million fans
Figure skating appeared as a separate sport from speed skating in the 60s of the 19th century. But it began in ancient times, long before our era, as evidenced by archaeological finds in Europe in the form of bone skates from the phalanges of large animals.
Performance on ice consists of performing a number of elements: jumps, rotations, steps, changing the direction of sliding and their derivatives. This sport was the first to be included in the compulsory program of the Winter Olympic Games. There are two areas in figure skating: singles and pairs skating.
Skating takes place to musical accompaniment, and the athletes’ program must include mandatory figure elements. The performance is judged on the complexity of the combinations performed, plasticity, artistry and musicality. In pair skating, interaction with your partner when dancing is necessarily assessed.
Hockey, 500 million fans
The history of hockey is not clear-cut. The birthplace of this type of game is Canada, but historians have discovered images of a game very similar to hockey in Dutch pictures from the 16th century.
This sport is popular in Sweden, the USA, and Canada, but very quickly gained popularity in Europe, especially in Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Finland.
Professional sports require complex and quite long preparation. The game is a team game, played on ice and its essence is to score the puck into the opponent’s goal.
Formula 1, 600 million fans
Formula 1 is an open-wheel car race. Cars participating in such races must meet a set of specific conditions and rules. All racing cars undergo crashworthiness tests.
The cars (as the cars that participate in the races are called) are designed and assembled by the team itself, so discoveries and technical progress are constantly present in this sport. Next, to win, you need to put the fastest and most experienced driver in a racing car and assemble a well-coordinated team that will quickly service the car on the track.
World championships in this sport began to be held in 1950. Since then, the Formula 1 championship has been held annually and consists of several stages. Races are conducted with a team of drivers or with a single driver in a car. Moreover, each team, according to the rules, fields two cars.
Skiing, 750 million fans
The history of the appearance of the skis themselves dates back to about 4,000 years ago, when this device appeared among the northern inhabitants to facilitate movement on the snow while hunting and in everyday life.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that skiing was especially popular in the northern countries, where snow was a natural phenomenon. This sport began its history many years ago in the 18th century in Norway. Since 1924, skiing has been included in the Winter Olympic sports.
This type has about twenty disciplines, including racing, downhill, slalom, ski jumping, biathlon, etc. The main type is, of course, racing (pursuit, relay, team sprint), but the most spectacular was biathlon, which combined the speed of movement skiing and target shooting accuracy.
Athletics, 900 million fans
This sport began its history back in Ancient Greece at the first Olympic Games, when athletes competed in running.
Athletics is included in the program of the modern Olympic Games and is a mass sport. This event includes walking, running (short and long distances), long and high jumps, all-around and throwing heavy objects. The competitions themselves can be held in open stadiums (as a rule, many of them are combined with football stadiums) or in closed halls (playpens).
The winner of any athletics competition is the athlete who showed the best results among all participants. The program for men includes 24 sports, the program for women – 23. Therefore, athletics is the sport that brings the largest set of Olympic medals.
