In 2023, around **** million people in the U.S. watched live sports on digital platforms, outpacing the number of traditional pay TV sports viewers for the first time. While the digital sports viewership is forecast to continue to grow in the upcoming years, traditional television is becoming increasingly unpopular to watch this kind of content.

The National Football League (NFL) was the most watched sports league in the United States in 2023. Viewers watched a combined 974.7 billion minutes of football action across the 284 televised games between November 2022 and November 2023. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball (MLB) ranked second with a little less than 330 billion combined minutes from viewers.

How much does a Super Bowl ad cost?

The price of running an ad during the Super Bowl has tripled over the past two decades. In 2024, advertisers paid an average of seven million U.S. dollars to air a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl LVI broadcast. The renowned sporting event is highly anticipated each year and is watched by millions around the world. In the U.S., the 2024 edition of the Super Bowl was watched by over 123 million Americans.

How many people watch the World Series?

Unlike the Super Bowl, MLB World Series TV viewership experienced an overall decrease over the past two decades. The games of the 2023 World Series, in which the Texas Rangers achieved a five-game series win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, were watched by around nine million viewers. This shows a considerable drop from the previous year, when nearly 12 million people tuned in to see the Houston Astros win the Commissioner’s Trophy.

Live sporting events often attract some of the highest TV audiences in the United States, with millions of viewers tuning in to watch the live action play out. In 2021, approximately **** million viewers in the United States watched digital live sports content at least once per month, a figure that is projected to rise to over ** million by 2025.

There are millions of sports fans across the United States, from those religiously following an NFL team to avid tennis fans or those who watch every Formula One Grand Prix. During an April 2023 survey in the United States, 44 percent of male respondents stated that they were avid sports fans. Meanwhile, this figure was just 15 percent among female respondents.

National Football League fans in the U.S.

Football is a widely enjoyed sport in the United States, as is evident from the millions of fans who tune in to watch their favorite teams compete every Monday night. The sport enjoys a diverse viewer demographic, with more than two thirds of white, Hispanic, and Black participants in an online survey identifying as either an avid or casual fan of football in January 2023. The survey also investigated the level of interest in the NFL in the U.S. broken down by gender, with a significantly larger share of men identifying as avid fans of the sport than women.

Women’s professional sports fans in the U.S.

Women’s professional sports viewership in the U.S. has grown significantly in recent years, helped at least partially by tournament victories across a wide range of sporting categories. When asked about the reason behind their interest in women’s sport in the U.S., nearly a third of respondents highlighted international events such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup as primary motivators for their interest. Meanwhile, when asked about the role of advertisers in promoting the growth of women’s sport in the U.S., more than half of survey participants believed that media agencies had a responsibility to do so.

According to a study conducted from November 2023 to January 2024, cricket had the largest audience base among various sports in India, amounting to over *** million viewers who watched the sport on either television or streaming services. Football followed second, with roughly **** that audience size. The growth of the Indian sports market Over the last couple of years, India’s sports industry experienced rapid growth in its market size. While there was a dent in revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the sports industry made a swift recovery from 2021 onwards, bolstered by advertising, sponsorships, and endorsements. Overall, the sector attributes the highest amount of its spending to the media, which amounted to ** billion Indian rupees and accounted for ********** of the entire sports market expenditure in India in 2023. And the winner is… Within the rapidly growing sports sector, cricket continues to be the most popular sport in India. One of the biggest and most lucrative tournaments in the cricketing world is the Indian Premier League (IPL). Featuring among the most popular sporting events among Indians viewers, it even surpassed the Olympic Summer Games and the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2021. Post-pandemic, the value of the IPL has skyrocketed, grossing over ** billion U.S. dollars in 2023. While the IPL's financial success is largely attributed to high-value sponsorships and financial contributions of the franchisees, the key source of its revenue stream was broadcasting rights.

The NFL was the most watched sports league in the United States in 2023 based on average viewership per game. An average of *** million fans tuned in to watch the football action between November 2022 and November 2023.

According to a survey conducted in South Korea in September 2024, sports had the highest viewership rating among people in their forties, at **** percent. This genre was generally more popular among middle-aged people.

As of January 2024, professional football was the most popular men's live sport in the United States, with ** percent of people watching it. Professional basketball came second with ** percent of viewers. By contrast, college football and basketball drew ** and ** percent of viewers, respectively.

According to a survey conducted in in Japan in November 2023, around **** percent of respondents stated that they watched sports on TV or the internet during the past year. Soccer games played by the national team were the most popular sports event to watch on digital media, followed by professional and high school baseball tournaments.

This statistic shows data on the share of internet users who watch sports on TV and online worldwide as of 4th quarter 2017, broken down by region. During the survey, ** percent of internet users from North America stated that they watched sports on TV.

As of March 2023, the preferred method for watching live sports among Americans was still traditional broadcast television. A survey revealed that ** percent of respondents chose to view baseball and basketball games via cable, satellite, or antenna services. In comparison, only ** percent of respondents opted for various streaming apps to watch these sports.

In the U.S., sports content is still the most popular on traditional TV, with around ** percent of the viewing time happening via cable, satellite, and over-the-air TV in the second quarter of 2024. However, with more and more consumers opting for streaming options, the time spent watching sporting events on providers, such as Prime Video and ESPN+ is increasing.

This statistic provides information on the number of TV viewers of major sporting events in 2017 in the United States and their ratings, sorted by sport. According to the source, the most viewed sporting event of 2017 was Super Bowl 51, which drew in over ***** million viewers in the United States.

College sports in the United States are hugely popular, with college games often attracting thousands of fans to stadiums and many more watching on television back home. During a May 2021 survey in the United States, four percent of respondents stated that they watched men's college sports on a daily basis.

The statistic depicts projected figures for total worldwide TV viewership of major sporting events in 2014. The FIFA World Cup Final in 2014 is projected to draw around 350 million TV viewers worldwide.

Viewership for major sporting events – additional information

The World Cup, an international soccer competition organized by FIFA, is one of the biggest sports events in the world. The competition is highly lucrative for FIFA, considering its popularity and wide viewership across the globe. The football association, in fact, generates majority of its revenue through TV broadcasting rights. In 2014, for instance, FIFA generated about 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in revenues from TV broadcasting rights. It is no surprise that the most important game of the competition, the final match, is projected to be one of the most watched sports events in 2014, as shown in the statistic.

The second most viewed sports event in 2014 is expected to be the UEFA Champions League Final. The European soccer tournament involves the best European clubs, such as Real Madrid -- team with the most UEFA Champions League titles -- AC Milan, and Liverpool FC to name a few. The viewership of the UEFA Champions League Final in 2014 was estimated to add up to 170 million worldwide. With projections to draw around 140 million viewers worldwide, the Winter Olympics opening ceremony ranks third in terms of viewership of sports events. In total, more than 410 TV channels broadcasted the Winter Olympic Games in 2014, showing more than 110 thousand hours of both digital and TV coverage on the event. The Winter Olympics closing ceremony in 2014 also had high viewership projections -- about 80 million TV viewers worldwide -- placing the event amongst the top five sporting events in terms of viewership.

There are widely considered to be four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada - NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. The professional soccer league (MLS) and the Women's NBA have also achieved popularity in the United States in recent years. During a 2024 survey, 34 percent of respondents stated that they were avid fans of the National Football League, NFL.

According to a study conducted from November 2023 to January 2024, the largest share of the sports audience in India was attributed to cricket, at ** percent. Meanwhile, football and kabaddi audiences constituted over ** percent each. The overall number of sports viewers in India was estimated to be *** million during the surveyed period.

There are many men's professional sports leagues that are hugely popular throughout the world, from the National Football League in the United States to Europe's biggest soccer leagues. During a May 2021 survey in the United States, ** percent of Hispanic respondents stated that they watched men's professional sports on a daily basis.

The COVID-19 pandemic that spread across the world at the beginning of 2020 was not only a big threat to public health, but also to the entire sports industry. Many professional and amateur leagues and events were canceled and the public was advised to not spend time in large groups or in public areas. During an April 2020 survey in the United States, ** percent of respondents strongly agreed with the sentiment that, although they were not really sports fans, they were planning on watching some sporting events when live sports start broadcasting again.

Fans can follow their favorite sports, teams and podcasts in a variety of different ways, including live TV, internet and radio. In a survey conducted in October 2023, it was found that ** percent of all adults in the United States watched live sport on television almost daily. While ** percent of Gen Z consumers watched live sports nearly daily, the share of millennials viewing sports on a daily basis amounted to ** percent.