Obviously that’s a difficult question. For some it depends on the season. In the winter it’s skiing (Nordic or Alpine?) and in the summer it might be baseball. There’s also the question of what constitutes a sport. I have no intention of wading into those waters – at least not in a Map Monday post. That said, there are quite a few maps out there purporting to detail the most popular sports in various parts of the world.
So how did I award the somewhat dubious honor of being a Map Monday feature? First, it had nothing to do with bribery. That’s not to say a cash inducement (or better yet a purchase and review of one of my books) wouldn’t influence me. Rather no such offer has ever been made. If you would like to break that trend please feel free to visit the Where to Purchase section of this site.
Which Map to Use
With that bit of business out of the way, back to the original question. Why did I choose this map? Despite spending copious time (nearly 15 minutes) trying to validate the map’s claims, I was unable to verify the author’s methodology – or even identify it really. I chose this map because it agreed with most of the others I found and it included a breakout of favorites by state in the US.
Not surprisingly football (or soccer for those of us in the US) is the most popular sport in the vast majority of countries. But it’s not as dominant as you might think. The Indian sub-continent, China, Japan, the Philippines, and the US, which represent roughly half of the world’s population (~3.54B) favor something else. Cricket’s popularity is greater in many former colonies than it is in its founding country (UK).
The same applies to basketball and baseball, both of which are more dominant in countries influenced by the US than they are in most states. States with big-time college basketball and the baseball diehards of the northeast and St. Louis are the exceptions. My biggest surprises were that horse racing (often quoted as the most popular spectator sport in the world) isn’t the favorite sport in any single country and that Russia’s favorite sport isn’t hockey. Perhaps Mr. Putin should’ve scored eight goals in a soccer match rather than a hockey game.
What were your favorite takeaways or surprises?
As always, thanks for reading.
Armen