Where does Tennis Rank Among the Most Popular Sports in the World

K

Kirijax

Hall of Fame
Always enjoy giving and helping tennis get the respect and recognition it deserves. It is truly one of the greatest sports in the world and without a doubt the greatest individual sport. It's easy to get caught up in all the fuss about the favorite sports in your own country, but step out into the world and you'll get a different viewpoint of how other countries think of sports. the number one sport in America doesn't even crack the top ten in other countries (Not that the fact has ever bothered Americans much). What sports would you think are in the top ten of the most popular? I decided to look around and some of the ones on the list were a bit surprising. Proud to see how tennis was holding its own though. Tennis truly is an international sport and one of the most popular.

Most Popular Sports in the World
 
rossi46

rossi46

Professional
Football as in the one where you use your foot (sort of makes sense!) is clearly the most played and watched.

Tennis is probably the best individual sport, can't be golf because it is not even a sport. Fat guys can be professionals and can compete into their 50s.
 
m2nk2

m2nk2

Hall of Fame
Football is by far the most popular. The World Cup final has got about 750 million viewers. That's quite a lot.

And club football is very popular too.

Tennis is probably top 10 though.
 
PhrygianDominant

PhrygianDominant

Hall of Fame
Football is of course the most popular, but tennis is almost as widely played. Meaning on all continents and in many countries, albeit by less people. American sports just skew the numbers because they are so different from what most of the world plays.
 
firepanda

firepanda

Professional
Top 10 I reckon? Football, cricket, basketball, rugby, tennis, golf, hockey, table tennis amongst others...

Anyone who doubts football's #1 stranglehold, the number being bandied around on the internet seems to be 3.5 billion. Half the world.
 
Phoenix1983

Phoenix1983

G.O.A.T.
Football #1.

Difficult to say what is #2. In terms of population it might be cricket, but in terms of number of countries who seriously participate, it might be basketball, athletics or tennis. Motor racing in all its forms (F1, Indy Car, etc.) would have to be up there as a global sport too.

Tennis is top 5 though in my opinion.
 
Chuonfood

Chuonfood

Semi-Pro
1. Soccer
2. Football
3. Baseball
4. Basketball
5. Hockey
6. Rugby
7. Chess
8. Tennis
9. Cricket
10. Boxing
 
D

dominikk1985

Legend
there is not country where tennis is number one but tennis is popular in most "civilized" countries.

soccer is of course more popular by a country mile but many other sports are only local.

for example in switzerland skiing is a lot more popular than tennis but in portugal nobody is skiing. in germany and france handball is more popular than tennis while in the US football and hockey is more popular (as is baseball and basketball of course).

however most of those sports are only meaningfull in a few countries while tennis is not really huge in any country but still among the top sports in many different countries.

I think overall that might make tennis a top5 sport worldwide.
 
V

Vrad

Professional
Phoenix1983 said:
LOL, no way is American Football at #2 worldwide.
Click to expand...

It could be #2 in terms of the number of people watching any 1 game (ie Super Bowl) or amount of money made through it.

Any other metric American Football is probably not top 5.
 
V

Vrad

Professional
LuckyR said:
OK, so we all agree soccer is #1, what else beats tennis worldwide?
Click to expand...

F1 almost certainly. Other possibilities are:
Cricket, Rugby, Boxing, UFC, baseball, basketball, golf or hockey. Can't think of anything else which could be above tennis.
 
Goosehead

Goosehead

Legend
football, golf, tennis, there are not many global sports.

*non global but partly global sports are i'd say cricket but its 10test match countries plus another 12ish one day sides.
*American football/hockey/basketball/baseball are massive sports in a massive country (usa) but not global,
*rubgy is like cricket..global but not really global as you have 10 or so top teams.
*boxing/chess/synchronized swimming ?. don't think so.
*athletics is popular..I dunno lol.

yeah tennis is a decent sized sport in a lot of countries..and has tourneys in a lot of different locations. technology in 21st century makes following tennis a lot easier than the old days.
 
West Coast Ace

West Coast Ace

G.O.A.T.
These polls are useless because after being sports, the comparisons end. Team sports are going to create fan loyalty that's passed through families, cities, countries for generations. Tennis players come and go.

Tennis is doing fine. Even in the US. IW, Cincy and USO have been setting records for attendance for many years. Same in Australia. Despite both countries lacking top male stars.
 
Bobby Jr

Bobby Jr

G.O.A.T.
Vrad said:
F1 almost certainly. Other possibilities are:
Cricket, Rugby, Boxing, UFC, baseball, basketball, golf or hockey. Can't think of anything else which could be above tennis.
Click to expand...
The grassroots spectator numbers for tennis would outweight F1 by eons. Some races even are really poorly attended - it's just that they don't care a lot because, for the F1 org, TV is pretty much what matters. There's no way a single race (don't bother with FP1, 2 quali etc) can attract more viewers than a two week long tennis major.

Similarly, Rugby. no way. It's only truly popular in about 5 countries (none of which are India or China) - Australia, NZ, UK, France...

UFC and baseball are jokes compared to tennis really in terms of global popularity. As is basketball if take the average percentage of people in a country who follow it instead of lumping China in which bumps any sport into the top 5 even if 5% of people there even know what it is.
 
M

Midaso240

Legend
Bobby Jr said:
The grassroots spectator numbers for tennis would outweight F1 by eons. Some races even are really poorly attended - it's just that they don't care a lot because, for the F1 org, TV is pretty much what matters. There's no way a single race (don't bother with FP1, 2 quali etc) can attract more viewers than a two week long tennis major.

Similarly, Rugby. no way. It's only truly popular in about 5 countries (none of which are India or China) - Australia, NZ, UK, France...

UFC and baseball are jokes compared to tennis really in terms of global popularity. As is basketball if take the average percentage of people in a country who follow it instead of lumping China in which bumps any sport into the top 5 even if 5% of people there even know what it is.
Click to expand...
I know it's not a real sport,but what about professional wrestling? It's pretty massive. Maybe the biggest TV audience after soccer
 
Goosehead

Goosehead

Legend
staged wrestling where they are really just ott musclebound actors sticking to a script is NOT a sport. :) no dice. no way.
 
TERRASTAR18

TERRASTAR18

Hall of Fame
Goosehead said:
football, golf, tennis, there are not many global sports.

*non global but partly global sports are i'd say cricket but its 10test match countries plus another 12ish one day sides.
*American football/hockey/basketball/baseball are massive sports in a massive country (usa) but not global,
*rubgy is like cricket..global but not really global as you have 10 or so top teams.
*boxing/chess/synchronized swimming ?. don't think so.
*athletics is popular..I dunno lol.

yeah tennis is a decent sized sport in a lot of countries..and has tourneys in a lot of different locations. technology in 21st century makes following tennis a lot easier than the old days.
Click to expand...

Russeljones said:
rofl at 2,3,4,5,6,9..

how about volleyball, table tennis, swimming, badminton, cycling?
Click to expand...

2. Football
3. Baseball
4. Basketball
5. Hockey
6. Rugby
7. Chess
8. Tennis
9. Cricket
10. Boxing

football outside of the sb isn't popular but basketball is arguably numer 2. it's popular in the us, europe,(both eastern,southern,central and western), china,malaysia,phillippines,korea, south america,africa, and in the west indies(behind only cricket and soccer). tennis has less of those countries and even in the countries it's played in, it's behind b-ball. and golf isn't not more of a global sport than ball.
 
m2nk2

m2nk2

Hall of Fame
Why are people saying cricket? It's only played by about 4 nations. Same with Rugby..
 
syke

syke

Professional
m2nk2 said:
Why are people saying cricket? It's only played by about 4 nations. Same with Rugby..
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No.... You have the Rugby Championships (previously Tri Nations) and the Six Nations Championship.

And you haven't included Rugby 7s.

At least they have a proper World Cup with a proper World Champions title, unlike American football or Baseball.

Oops, I forgot Sweden wasn't a Commonwealth country..
 
K

Kirijax

Hall of Fame
Tennis is number one nowhere but it is consistently in the top 3 or 4 sports for every country. Not a bad place to be. But Americans are not interested in anything unless an American is involved so the sport needs that next big American star.
 
N

Nickzor

Semi-Pro
Not the MOOOOSSSSTTTT popular sport but its a very popular one, its costly once you begin to get better and need to upgrade your racquets, strings etc, and its not exactly a sport you can enjoy that much if you don't know how to play, because all you'll be doing is hitting balls 10 feet long or making tem land 2 feet before the even make it over the net orr hitting them 15 feet high, in comparison a sport like soccer or volleyball even if your not good at it is way more fun then tennis is, i have FREE local tennis courts right near my house, they are great for public courts, good nets, good surface yettt practically all year round i only see the same 7-10 people that come down most of the year at least 3 times a week with the occasional group that come once in a blue moon, that just tells me its not that popular down here where i live
 
S

Sid_Vicious

G.O.A.T.
dominikk1985 said:
there is not country where tennis is number one but tennis is popular in most "civilized" countries.

soccer is of course more popular by a country mile but many other sports are only local.

for example in switzerland skiing is a lot more popular than tennis but in portugal nobody is skiing. in germany and france handball is more popular than tennis while in the US football and hockey is more popular (as is baseball and basketball of course).

however most of those sports are only meaningfull in a few countries while tennis is not really huge in any country but still among the top sports in many different countries.

I think overall that might make tennis a top5 sport worldwide.
Click to expand...
As in a recreational activity or viewership on TV. I highly doubt that any professional skier is even remotely close in popularity in Switzerland to Federer or Wawrinka.
 
Terenigma

Terenigma

G.O.A.T.
Based on what is shown on prime TV channels most often here in England i would rate it as follows:

1) Football
2) Cricket
3) Rugby
4) F1
5) Snooker
6) Golf
7) Darts
8 ) Tennis

I obviously cant speak for other countries but in the UK, tennis is pretty far down the prioritys to be shown on tv. Aside from wimbledon and the french open. There is no tennis coverage on any of the freeview channels here. I think that speaks volumes to its popularity in general.
 
Cosmic_Colin

Cosmic_Colin

Professional
What's popular in China? Badminton? If so, that must be near the top.

Same with India and whatever they like, other than Cricket.

Together these countries are about a third of the planet!

USA? That's less than 5% of the world. All this talk of American sports is ridiculous. In other countries they are nothing more than special interest sports followed by a small minority. Anyone telling you "but.. but.. baseball is kinda popular in Europe" is participating in wishful thinking.
 
F

forehand fan

Rookie
m2nk2 said:
Why are people saying cricket? It's only played by about 4 nations. Same with Rugby..
Click to expand...
cricket is the most popular sport here in the indian sub continent and the indian subcontinent has clsoe to 2 billion people. and in countries like, australia, england and west indies cricket is top 3.it is also prett popukar in the middle east
 
rossi46

rossi46

Professional
forehand fan said:
cricket is the most popular sport here in the indian sub continent and the indian subcontinent has clsoe to 2 billion people. and in countries like, australia, england and west indies cricket is top 3.it is also prett popukar in the middle east
Click to expand...

No global following, 3 or 4 countries even with large populations doesn't constitute widespread following or participation.

Cricket isn't popular because it's boring. 5 days to play a match and if it rains it's a draw !!! What a stupid sport.
 
F

forehand fan

Rookie
rossi46 said:
No global following, 3 or 4 countries even with large populations doesn't constitute widespread following or participation.

Cricket isn't popular because it's boring. 5 days to play a match and if it rains it's a draw !!! What a stupid sport.
Click to expand...

more popular means more number of people follow that sport, it's pretty simple really. and other than football, which sports has worldwide following? may be tennis.. i can't think of anything else
 
rossi46

rossi46

Professional
forehand fan said:
more popular means more number of people follow that sport, it's pretty simple really. and other than football, which sports has worldwide following? may be tennis.. i can't think of anything else
Click to expand...

Basketball, massive in the Americas & all of Europe, certain parts of Asia & Africa.

There is a European championship that has more participants than the Cricket "WORLD" Cup. On top of that the basketball in the Olympics is also very popular.
 
Goosehead

Goosehead

Legend
rossi46 said:
No global following, 3 or 4 countries even with large populations doesn't constitute widespread following or participation.

Cricket isn't popular because it's boring. 5 days to play a match and if it rains it's a draw !!! What a stupid sport.
Click to expand...

5 days :confused: :) lol that's just test matches, there are twenty/20 matches and one day internationals (ODI), and if it rains so what? still plenty of time, test matches often only need 4 days.

anyway apart from being wrong about that :), it isn't 3 or 4 countries..there are 10 test teams, another 10-12 one day international countries. and a lot of countries play below those levels as well (associate members/affiliate members). the world cup has around 100 countries trying to qualify for the finals.

more popular than basketball or friggin baseball, but hey baby..watch what you like and hate what you like even more. but no need to lie about cricket.
 
Last edited:
MonkeyBoy

MonkeyBoy

Hall of Fame
Tennis is said to be the most popular individual sport in the world (above boxing).

overall:
1. soccer by farrrrrrrrrr
2. usually said to be cricket
 
Last edited:
F

forehand fan

Rookie
rossi46 said:
Basketball, massive in the Americas & all of Europe, certain parts of Asia & Africa.

There is a European championship that has more participants than the Cricket "WORLD" Cup. On top of that the basketball in the Olympics is also very popular.
Click to expand...

fine. may be basketball, is above cricket if you ignore total population , any other sports?
 
SystemicAnomaly

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Is popularity determined by the size of a sport's fanbase (most watched) or by the number of people who participate in a sport? For either of those criteria, we might also need to make a distinction between the casual fan or participant and the regular fan or participant. The article referenced by the OP asks how popularity might be determined at the onset but then fails to state the criteria used for their list. What is really needed, perhaps, is 2 lists -- most watched and most played.

With that said, I am shocked that badminton is not listed in the top 10. Some sources put the worldwide participation of badminton at #2 (right behind soccer/futbol). I suspect that the fan base might also be in the top 10.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/badminton/news/story?id=1845228
http://www.topendsports.com/world/lists/popular-sport/
http://mostpopularsports.net/in-the-world-6to10
http://biggestglobalsports.com/
 
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