OT: Popularity of different sports in USA
- Thread starter WhichReligionIsRight
- Start date
U.S. Soccer Fans Are Younger, More Diverse Than Fans of Other Sports
Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. adults identify as soccer fans, but the sport still lags behind the “Big Four” in popularity, according to Morning Consult data.
morningconsult.com
For a half century, soccer has been a very popular sport to participate in -- but do people really follow soccer teams? Does soccer attract big crowds? Do soccer championship games have the visibility of the supposed big 4 sports? I'm asking sincerely; I don't know because I don't follow soccer at all. The Philadelphia Inquirer tries to report a lot on the local soccer team, but I wonder if that translates into a big fan base.
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I'd love to see comparisons between lacrosse and baseball for 1970, 1990 and 2022. I'm sure baseball is well ahead, especially in the South. But I'm sure the gap has narrowed, and might even have reversed in Maryland, and New York.
I think there is a much larger World Cup following than there was a half century ago. And the Women's World Cup following was non-existent 50 years ago. Not sure about the pro leagues.
Halftime: 50 most-watched sporting events of 2022 (so far)
Here is a look at the 50 best sports ratings of 2022 so far, with the NFL dominating the list more than usual.
www.sportsmediawatch.com
Soccer has many casual fans but just every 4 years for the World Cup. If they just peeled off the MLS then that number would near zero.
That's me. World Cup and Euros and a few other games sprinkled in if the mood strikes lol.
Most US soccer fans are following European clubs rather than American professional soccer.
MLS is like the 3rd or 4th favorite league for American fans. Can't measure the sports' popularity based on MLS.
There is a fairly strong correlation between states where football is really popular and where their colleges do well in the sport--unsurprisingly. But this suggests that Rutgers should be a powerhouse in soccer because of the high level of popularity. Women already demonstrate this. The men need to catch up.
The USA Women's National Team drew around 14 million viewers for the 2109 World Cup Final in France. The 2018 Men's World Cup drew just under 18 million (France-Croatia).
By comparison,
NBA Finals viewership has been down in recent years - used to average over 20 million viewers six years ago, but was down to around 12 million viewers for the 2022 Finals.
MLB averaged over 40 million views for the World Series back in the 1970s was down to 12 million last year.
College Football National Championship - nearly 20 million viewers. College Basketball FInal Four - 17 million.
Stanley Cup Finals - about 2.5 million average
MLS Cup gets about 1 million viewers. Champions League Final 2.8 million. US Men's National Team (2021) - 800,000
Super Bowl 99 million
A PLL (Pro Lacrosse) game averaged 450,000 viewers this year - a record.
A lot of these stats are available at Sports Media Watch.
If I'm reading it right, NJ is....
2nd (tie) in soccer popularity
6th (tie) in baseball popularity
7th in hockey popularity
26th (tie) in basketball popularity
44th (tie) in football popularity
2nd (tie) in soccer popularity
6th (tie) in baseball popularity
7th in hockey popularity
26th (tie) in basketball popularity
44th (tie) in football popularity
Soccer is different in that club and national (World Cup) soccer both have a lot interest. For club soccer in this country, the situation is split up in many different ways. MLS lags in popularity behind Liga Mx, The Premier League, and Champions League. I'd have to look up the TV viewership of the Budesliga, La Liga, and Serie A. Tracking the viewership across soccer leagues is hard because so much is streamed.
Still, MLS is doing well. Most of the clubs have their own stadiums and attendance is strong throughout the league. I like MLS because I'm a fan of American soccer.
Champions League Final Averages 2.76 Million Viewers in US
The viewer count is the most ever in America, topping the 2011 final between Barcelona and Manchester United.
www.nbcnewyork.com
Premier League viewership on NBC up 21% for 2021/22 season - SportsPro
US media giant NBC nets 507,000 average TAD for its coverage of English soccer's top-flight Premier League.
www.sportspromedia.com
La Liga and MLS TV ratings are on par with each other in the USA. But MLS lags way behind Barca and Real - though just about every club in the world does, too. Next year, MLS moves to Apple TV+ (Joining Friday Night Baseball). I suspect that while this deal will be a nice cash infusion for MLS, ratings won't be so good (if there even published).
PLL is in it's infancy and sometimes only available on ESPN+. Did they have the ratings for May Madness?
NCAA men’s lacrosse final hits high
The Virginia-Maryland NCAA men’s lacrosse national championship averaged 399,000 viewers on ESPN2 Memorial Day, up 35% from the last time it was held in 2019 (Virginia-Yale: 296K) and the largest audience for the event since 2017. Semifinal games averaged 284,000 (+39%), the largest audience since 2013. [ESPN PR/Twitter 6.2]
Ratings: Stanley Cup, MLB, softball, lacrosse
Recent sports TV ratings: a modest increase for round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs; plus, new highs for NCAA softball and men's lacrosse.
www.sportsmediawatch.com
NCAA men’s lacrosse final hits high
The Virginia-Maryland NCAA men’s lacrosse national championship averaged 399,000 viewers on ESPN2 Memorial Day, up 35% from the last time it was held in 2019 (Virginia-Yale: 296K) and the largest audience for the event since 2017. Semifinal games averaged 284,000 (+39%), the largest audience since 2013. [ESPN PR/Twitter 6.2]
Ratings: Stanley Cup, MLB, softball, lacrosse
Recent sports TV ratings: a modest increase for round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs; plus, new highs for NCAA softball and men's lacrosse.
That's 2021. I think 2022 was higher.
At least on the college level, NCAA baseball and softball have gotten significantly more popular than they were 10, 20, or 30 years ago.
Personally I never followed soccer at all until both my daughters started playing club soccer. Now I would say I follow it regularly behind only College Football and the NHL. Because both of my daughters play I watch an equal amount of women's soccer as I do men's soccer.
Ain't buying that in NJ soccer is more popular than football.
Same here, I'm not buying this poll. No way are 29% more interested in soccer compared to 28% for football. Small sample size, look at any bar for football games, now try and find one for a soccer game with the same crowd.
I'd love to see the breakdown between college football and pro football.
Plenty in the city. Not too many bars in suburban NJ are trying to open for a 730am kickoff.
This was about google searches not interest, and it doesn't say what dates, I don't think. If this was the middle of August, the number of football searches would be way down comparatively. And the World Cup is starting in a couple of months, which may potentially be skewing the numbers a bit.
Area I grew-up in is essentially a border town now (high school now 80% Hispanic - used to be 9%). Soccer is all they do in free time. Along with the population increase came satellite dishes. Some houses have a half dozen staged around. They watch international games from where they came from. The local school games aren't particularly more popular than they were in the past. The foreigners like their own local teams better than school teams
There isn't even a chance of that. If anybody is saying that, they are lost in space or have a financial interest in soccer.
I call 🐂💩
Good ratings for MLS Cup - as MLS is about to move to Apple TV.
www.inquirer.com
Philadelphia helped MLS Cup draw its biggest U.S. TV audience in 25 years
During the penalty kick shootout, 26% of all household TVs in the Philly area were tuned in to watch the local soccer team fall just short of its first championship.
www.inquirer.com
Good ratings for MLS Cup - as MLS is about to move to Apple TV.
Philadelphia helped MLS Cup draw its biggest U.S. TV audience in 25 years
During the penalty kick shootout, 26% of all household TVs in the Philly area were tuned in to watch the local soccer team fall just short of its first championship.
I wonder if it had any impact on viewership to get MLS championship played and thus the season ending a month or so earlier than it had been for the past several years, before the WC starts in Qatar (also no schedule pause back in the summer had the WC been held sometime in June/July like it typically is). In the early years, MLS concluded its season in October.
Along with having Game 6 of WS with the Phillies playing that night, it may have helped in some circles as a de facto doubleheader on Saturday afternoon and evening for many Phila soccer and baseball fans.
Soccer is extremely popular in Philadelphia. They love the Union and this was their Championship game. They also love Premier League with many watch bars for different teams.
I was out riding my bike as the match started. I was in the Manayunk section about 10 miles from my local bar. Every bar I passed had a big crowd watching the game, most with sound on you could hear from the street. If you wanted to watch college football at 4pm you were out of luck. I would say the viewing number in the city was way higher as bars are note accounted for.
All good points. I also think the fact that there weren't any super CFB matchups during that timeslot surely helped. In any case, this is good news for MLS. I'm excited to see MLS on Apple TV next season.
So, I know the CIO for MLS pretty well.
World Cup and many of the international giants have huge followings. And since we are a melting pot, they get pretty large draws.
But MLS is still a very large distant 5th in American sports viewership. You can put NYCFC on TV during the regular season and it does not show as a pimple in local viewing on TV. It has gotten much better than where it was but...
World Cup and many of the international giants have huge followings. And since we are a melting pot, they get pretty large draws.
But MLS is still a very large distant 5th in American sports viewership. You can put NYCFC on TV during the regular season and it does not show as a pimple in local viewing on TV. It has gotten much better than where it was but...
Because they are essentially a minor league. It's like the somerset patriots being on tv vs the Yankees and Phillies when compared to English premier league.
I don't doubt it. Good for Philly bars to be able to ride the wave with the Union and the Phillies as far as they both could take it, and now the spotlight focuses even more on the Eagles.
Georgia-Tennessee was at least one pretty big matchup but not many of them.
The demographics have been changing in favor of soccer. Folks have benefited from wider global exposure and professional coverage of the sport and the increasing attention and growing popularity looks to be building upon itself.
Everyone in this thread is referring to interest of fans watching the pros, but soccer might actually be the most popular sport for youth participation. Why there is such a disconnect between youth participation and fan interest is something I find intriguing, and I did a research project on this in a sport sociology class while majoring in sport management at Rutgers. We arrived at a number of factors for this, perhaps most notably is the minimal cost of entry for young kids to get signed up to play, very little equipment for the parents to spend money on without knowing if their kid will actually enjoy it, etc. However, as kids get older, most of them move to other sports.
What's crazy is just how powerful the NFL is. Knew they dominate the ratings, but crazy that Round 1 of the draft got more viewers than most Olympic nights, NBA conference finals games. Etc. It's literally 3 minutes of action and 177 minutes of nothing.
much about what you said with the youth sports is correct. Plus- everyone can play the sport in some capacity as a kid.
Basketball also has a very low "barrier of entry". But it sorts kids out on the basis of height very early.
