The TOP-10 Most Popular Sports In The World 2020

All people on planet Earth sooner or later come into contact with the amazing world of sports. In one form or another, sports games exist at all times and in the most remote and godforsaken corners of our planet. In ancient Egypt were popular wrestling, fencing, swimming, gymnastics. Many artifacts with the images of athletes of that time have survived to our days. The Maya tribes played something like a mix of modern racquetball and volleyball. The ancient Greeks left an indisputable mark in the history of modern sports, starting to hold the Olympic Games. And in the twentieth century, people decided to resume these competitions. On the summer Olympian Games 2020 which will be held in Tokyo, more than 12500 sportsmen from 205 countries will be competing in 34 kinds of sports.  So human civilization and sport closely intertwined throughout history. Let’s see what modern sports are in the TOP 10 Most Popular Sports In The World today

10. Golf – 450 Million Fans

The exact origin of the game of golf is unknown. According to some sources, it began to be played in the 13th century in Holland, according to others it was played in ancient China since the 6th century. Now golf is a kind of premium sport, as the equipment for the game and the maintenance of golf fields of a big area require huge financial costs. That’s why most popular in Western Europe, North America, and New Zeland. Despite everything, there are a lot of golf leagues and the total audience of sports fans exceeds 450 million

9. Rugby – 475 Million Fans

Rugby holds the penultimate position on our list, with the number of fans in 475 million. History of modern rugby started about 1845 at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Two teams of 15 people each take part in the game. The rules of the game are quite complicated. You can see the full history and rules of the game on Wikipedia. Rugby game became widespread due to the fact that the British Empire had colonies around the world including the countries of Europe, Australia, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia

8. Baseball – 500 Million Fans

Baseball is played in more than 120 countries, the most popular in the USA, Japan, South Korea. The first match according to modern baseball rules took place on June 19, 1846. Since then, this game has been constantly gaining popularity due to its spectacularism and unusual atmosphere. On March 20, 2008, an absolute record was recorded at the game between the teams of the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers – 115,301 spectators enjoyed this stunning sight on the stadium

7. Basketball – 825 Million Fans

It seems to me there is no such person who would never hear of such a game as basketball. Having appeared in the USA in 1981, it quickly gained popularity and now it is played literally in all countries of the world. NBA is the largest and most popular basketball league. On average, each NBA match gathers an audience of more than 2,000,000 people worldwide.

6. Table Tennis – 875 Million Fans

An indoor sport which is popular mainly in Asia, but 226 countries are members of the International Table Tennis Federation. It is an Olympic sport, and tournaments of the ETU and ITTF federations are regularly held. At the moment, the TOP-100 of the best athletes in table tennis is headed by representatives of China and South Korea. The total audience is more than 875 million table tennis fans.

5. Volleyball – 900 Millions Fans

It rightfully occupies the 5th position in our rating, with the number of fans in more than 900 million. As for me, the most spectacular is Women’s Beach Volleyball, and men will support me in this 🙂 The largest volleyball competitions are the Olympic Games, the World Cup, the World Champions Cup, the League of Nations, the European Championships and the Euro league. Top 10 best volleyball players of all time are natives of Brasilia, Russia, Italy, Serbia, and Bulgaria.

4. Tennis – 1 Billion Fans

Tennis is the 4th of the most popular sports in the world. Only two players play tennis, the main goal is to throw the ball to the opponent’s side with the help of a racket so that he cannot reflect it back. The history of tennis has more than 600 years, and modern tennis has the name “lawn tennis”. The most popular are the US Open, Wimbledon, Australian Open, Roland Garros and Grand Slam Tournaments. In 2020, the best tennis players among men are Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer. And among women Ashley Barty, Simone Halep, Carolina Plishkova

It is very hard physically and requires a lot of stamina. On average tennis match, last 1.5-2 hours. Match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut in June 2010, lasted 10 hours 5 minutes and this is an absolute record.   

3. Field Hockey – 2 Billions Fans

Field hockey is extremely popular in India and Pakistan, and more than 126 countries are members of the International Field Hockey Federation (FIH). It is also an Olympic sport. Together, all this guarantees a legitimate 3rd place among the most-viewed sports in the world. 

2. Cricket – 2.5 Billion Fans

With a score of 2.5 billion viewers, cricket takes second place at our top. Cricket appeared at the end of the 16th century in England and became widespread in the former colonies of the British Empire. Very popular in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia.

Cricket has a very long history and has been played for over 3 centuries. To study its history more deeply, I recommend visiting the Wikipedia page on this sport.

1. Football – 4 Billion Fans

Association football widely known as football or soccer is the most popular and the most-watched sport in the world. Its audience is over 4 billion people or every second inhabitant of the earth. The number of football players is more than 250 million people. Here some fact why football considered a most popular sport:

• Most popular sports event in the world – FIFA World Cup with the reach of 3.5 billion people
• UEFA Champions League matches watching more than 1.7 billion people
• FIFA Confederations Cup matches have more than 1 billion of watchers around the world
• Most watched football match in the history of modern football was between Liverpool and Manchester United in march 2015. This historical event gathered more than 700 million people!

Perhaps this rating was a surprise for someone and it did not include your favorite sport. You need to understand that in different countries popular certain sports. This is due to historical development, traditions, climatic conditions. For example, in Canada, the most popular sport is hockey, in the UK – football, in India – cricket. What sports are popular in the USA? If you are interested, the answer to this question can be found in my article.