In competitive MOBA game League of Legends, a ranking system is then used to match players of similar skill levels against each other in online games. The League of Legends ranking system has ten levels to indicate the skill level of the gamer. Among North American players, the Bronze skill level was the most common tier as of January 2025, achieved by 21.63 percent of players. Meanwhile, only a small handful of gamers were able to reach the top levels within the game. For casual and professional gamers alike League of Legends has built a loyal and large fanbase in the ten years since its release. The game reached a landmark 100 million monthly active users in 2016, an impressive increase from the 15 million users it had in 2011. As a result of its entertaining and varied gameplay, League of Legends has also become one of the most popular games amongst eSports viewers. The League of Legends eSports championship finals in 2023 became one of the most watched eSports events in history as as viewership peaked at 6.4 million viewers. With so many people watching this event, it comes as no surprise that the prize pool is sizeable. The 2023 edition took place in the Seoul and Busan, South Korea, with a total of 2.23 million U.S. dollars in prize money up for grabs. The South Korean eSports team T1 emerged victorious in 2023, thereby pocketing a whopping 445 thousand U.S. dollars in prize money.

The Dallas Cowboys have the highest all-time winning percentage during the regular season of the National Football League. The franchise has an impressive win percentage of 57.6 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers find themselves in last place with a regular season win percentage of just 40.6 percent.

Regular season evergreens With such a high win percentage during the regular season, it is no wonder that the Dallas Cowboys draw in big crowds – the average regular season attendance in the 2023 season stood at 93,594, over 14,000 spectators more than the second-placed team, the New York Giants. However, although the Cowboys come out on top in terms of win percentage, it is the Green Bay Packers who have won the highest number of regular season games, 799, in NFL history. This high number can be attributed to the fact that the Packers were founded way back in 1921, just one year after the NFL’s founding in 1920.

Who shines in the postseason? While the regular season may lay the groundwork for success, it is during the postseason that the big teams flex their muscles. The New England Patriots are in joint second place in terms of number of wins in the postseason – their 37 wins currently put them just behind the San Francisco 49ers, who went into the lead thanks to their run to the Super Bowl in the 2023 season. It is unsurprising, then, that these usual suspects top the list of Super Bowl appearances – the Patriots are top of the pile, having reached the biggest game in football a record 11 times. Of these 11 visits to the Super Bowl, the Patriots have won six. This puts them level with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the highest number of Super Bowl wins of all time.

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.

While the Dallas Cowboys may have last tasted Super Bowl success back in 1996, the Texas outfit is still by far the most valuable franchise in the National Football League. Latest estimates value the franchise at 10.1 billion U.S. dollars, some two billion U.S. dollars more than its nearest rival, the Los Angeles Rams. Cowboys lead the way off the pitch... In 2024, the Cowboys’ franchise was valued at nine billion U.S. dollars, whilst the average franchise value in the NFL stood at around 5.6 billion U.S. dollars. In 2023, the Cowboys generated 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, the most of all NFL teams. The franchise also ranked top of the list of most valuable sports team brands worldwide, just ahead of other household names such as the New York Yankees and Real Madrid. Along with the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys have been crowned Super Bowl champions a total of five times. The Cowboys' Golden Era came in the 1990s, when the team claimed three Super Bowl Rings between 1993 and 1996. ...while the Patriots dominated on the pitch The Boston-based New England Patriots were the third most valuable franchise in the league, valued at 7.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. The team, who plays its home games at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, dominated the Super Bowl this century, with all six of their titles coming under head coach, Bill Belichick, since 2002. During this period of success, the team was led by legendary quarterback, Tom Brady, who held the record for most career playoff wins - his 35 career playoff wins are more than double that of his closest rival on the list, Joe Montana. It is unsurprising, then, that the now-retired quarterback also featured top of the list of players with the most passing yards in NFL history. Indeed, he was only one of four players in NFL history with more than 70 thousand passing yards, the other three being Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees.

With each player taking home a handsome 8.32 million U.S. dollars every year, the NBA is the professional sports league with the highest player wages worldwide. In second place is the Indian Premier League, an annual cricket competition contested each year between eight franchises representing eight different Indian cities.

Big money in the NBA Although the wages that players in the NBA take home are astronomical, the average annual salaries vary from one team to another. Whilst the New York Knicks pay their players an average of 7.08 million U.S. dollars a year, Portland Trail Blazers spent around 10.04 million U.S. dollars annually on each of their stars in 2019/20. NBA salaries have tremendously increased throughout the years reaching 8.32 million U.S. dollars in 2019/20 compared to 4.6 million U.S. dollars in 2015/16.

In 2023, the average of players within each MLB team was between around 26-30 years old. This is considered to be the prime of a player's career, as they are typically at their peak physical and athletic ability at this age.

Who is the oldest player in the MLB?

In 2023, the average age of the players on the New York Yankees' roster was 28.3 years. Out of all the teams in MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers had the highest average player age. In the same year, the Toronto Blue Jays' average player age was 29.6 years.

What is Major League Baseball? Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada. It comprises 30 teams, 29 of which are located in the United States and one in Canada. The teams are divided into two leagues: the American League (AL) and the National League (NL), and each league is further divided into three divisions: East, Central, and West. The teams play a 162-game regular season schedule, with the goal of earning a spot in the postseason, which consists of the AL and NL Championship Series, and the World Series. The team that wins the World Series is declared the champion of the MLB.

Fans watch at home and live in the stadiums There are many ways to enjoy MLB games, whether you are a die-hard fan, a casual viewer, or a player yourself. You can watch games on TV, or stream them live online. In 2022, the average TV viewership of MLB World Series games stood at 11.8 million. Additionally, many teams have their own websites, social media accounts, and mobile apps that allow fans to stay up-to-date with the latest news, scores, and player stats. It is also possible to purchase tickets to games and watch the action live at the stadium. In 2022, the average attendance at the games in the MLB was 26,808.

The eSports market has exploded in recent years with more and more viewers tuning in to watch the best gamers in the world do battle. The League of Legends 2024 World Championship became the most watched eSports event of all time, with a recorded 6.86 million peak viewers. The second most viewed tournament was the League of Legends 2023 World Championship in South Korea, with 6.4 million peak viewers. eSports on the rise The eSports audience size in 2021 stood at a considerable 234 million enthusiasts, on top of 240 million occasional viewers. If these figures were not impressive enough, they are forecast to grow even further in the next few years. The enthusiasts are spread across the world, but the Asia Pacific region seems to be a particular hotspot for eSports. In the United States, meanwhile, some 13.4 percent of internet users in 2021 watched eSports, with the figure expected to rise to 15.5 percent by 2023. League of Legends tournaments Although League of Legends was released some 12 years ago, it has only recently exploded into life thanks to the eSports market. With the increased viewership comes increased revenue, and this means that the League of Legends tournaments are worth big money. The game’s cumulative prize pool for tournaments across the world amounted to over 7.82 million U.S. dollars in 2021. As well as the Mid-Season Invitational tournament, the best LoL players also fight it out in the annual League of Legends World Championship. The stakes were higher than ever in 2018 as the total prize pool stood at 6.45 million U.S. dollars. The most recent World Championships in 2024 ended in a final match up between T1 and Bilibili Gaming, from South Korea and China, respectively. T1 emerged as champions following a 3-2 victory, pocketing prize money of almost half a million U.S. dollars.

In the summer transfer period for the 2023/2024 season of La Liga, Real Madrid was allowed to spend up to roughly 727.5 million euros on salaries, setting the highest spending limit among the 20 soccer teams in the Spanish top-tier soccer league in that season. Atlético de Madrid had the second-highest salary cap, while the FC Barcelona ranked third with a limit of 270 million euros.

The salary cap, known as ‘límite de coste de la plantilla deportiva (LCPD)’ in Spain, is approved by La Liga based on a proposal for the upcoming season given by each club. To calculate the final amount, the clubs’ expected revenues and their non-sport expenses are considered.

FC Barcelona: struggling financially?

The FC Barcelona’s net profit in 2022/2023 was the highest recorded since over one decade, surpassing 350 million euros. Versus the previous season, this represented an increase of 260 percent. Meanwhile, the Spanish club’s operating revenue also reached a record of 1.26 billion euros. Nonetheless, FC Barcelona lost one spot in the annual salary cap ranking in the 2023/2024 season.

La Liga’s transfer spending

With total transfer fees amounting to over 700 million euros in the 2023 season, the Spanish soccer market’s spending remained below pre-pandemic levels, though significantly higher than in 2020 and 2021. In those years, this spending dropped more than 63 percent and 76 percent versus 2019, reaching the lowest spending since 2013. Behind the English Premier League, La Liga is the second most valuable soccer market among European leagues.

In 2024, the League of Legends World Championship, which took place in the France, Germany, and the UK, had a prize pool of just under 2.23 million U.S. dollars. This marked a significant drop on the prize pool of 6.45 million U.S. dollars in 2018. The total winnings from the tournament in 2018 were the largest on record since the championship began in 2011, and the cumulative prize money since 2019 has totaled slightly above two million U.S. dollars annually. League of Legends is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that pits opposing teams against each other to infiltrate their opponents’ base and destroy their “nexus”, a fortified structure within the base. Who are the most prominent League of Legends players worldwide? Looking at professional gamers, Sang Hyeok Lee was the highest-earning League of Legends player worldwide in 2024. Hailing from South Korea, Lee, who played under the moniker of Faker, had earned more than 1.8 million U.S. dollars competing at League of Legends tournaments throughout his eSports gaming career. Meanwhile, Caedrel was the most watched League of Legends streamer on Twitch worldwide, having accumulated more than 3.6 million viewership hours in the 30 days preceding December 2024. The British League of Legends streamer’s monthly viewership hours were about 25 percent higher than NoWay4u_Sir, who was second in the ranking. How popular are MOBA games? Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games are a widely played subgenre of strategy games which enable teams of players to compete against one another on a predetermined battlefield. Although they were not the first games within the genre, MOBA was popularized with titles such as League of Legends and Dota 2. In April 2024, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was the most downloaded MOBA mobile gaming app worldwide, registering almost six million downloads. Meanwhile, Honor of Kings was the top-grossing mobile MOBA app worldwide, reporting an annual revenue of above 161 million U.S. dollars in April 2024.

Sponsorship revenue for the major sports leagues in the United States reaches into the millions of U.S. dollars every year. In the 2022 season, sponsorship revenue in the National Football League (NFL) stood at 1.88 billion U.S. dollars. The largest sponsorship category within the league was technology, followed by betting, lottery and gaming.

Attendance at National Football League games

The National Football League is the highest division of professional American Football in the United States. With 32 teams competing annually with the hopes of advancing to and winning the Super Bowl championship game, the league attracts millions of fans from across the country each year. Comparing the average per game attendance of the four major sports league in North America, the NFL attracted close to 70 thousand fans per game on average, ranking it higher than Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League in the 2022/23 season. Overall, the Dallas Cowboys welcomed the most attendees in the NFL on average in 2022.

Fantasy sports in the U.S.

One way for fans to engage with their favorite professional athletes is through fantasy sports, which involves the creation of a virtual team that tracks the performance of players and enables users to accumulate points after each game week. In 2022, the fantasy sports industry in the United States was worth an estimated 9.48 billion U.S. dollars. According to an August 2022 survey, ESPN’s platform ESPN Fantasy Sports was the most popular to use amongst fantasy football players in the United States. The survey also revealed some of the most important features of fantasy football platforms for users from the United States, with platform simplicity being very important for almost two thirds of respondents.

In 2023, the 32 teams of the National Football League (NFL) generated a total revenue of approximately **** billion U.S. dollars. This shows an increase of nearly *** billion U.S. dollars over the previous year. How does the NFL compare to other major sports leagues? The NFL is the most profitable professional sports league in the United States. Between 2001 and 2019, the total revenue of all 32 NFL teams steadily increased, reaching ** billion U.S. dollars in 2019. This figure dropped to approximately **** billion U.S. dollars in 2020, due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, however, shot back up in 2021 to exceed pre-pandemic levels. In comparison, the revenue generated by Major League Baseball (MLB) teams amounted to around ***** billion U.S. dollars in 2023, while the revenue of the National Basketball Association (NBA) was ***** billion U.S. dollars in the 2022/23 season. NFL revenue streams In the list of most watched TV programs in the U.S., football games dominate the top spots. Duly, the NFL has a diverse array of lucrative revenue streams, such as sponsorships, media partnerships (both broadcasting and digital), ticket sales and concessions. As of February 2024, media deals between the NFL and networks in the United States alone accounted for over ** billion U.S. dollars annually. Meanwhile, NFL league and team sponsorships provided nearly *** billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2022. Which team generates the most income? In 2023, the five-time Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys topped the rankings of NFL teams with the highest revenues. That year, the Cowboys were the only team to generate more than *** billion U.S. dollars in revenue. The Las Vegas Raiders ranked second with approximately *** million U.S. dollars in revenue. Meanwhile, the team with the most Super Bowl titles of the last 20 years - the New England Patriots - sat in fourth place with *** million U.S. dollars in revenue.

Manchester United is the most followed Premier League club in the UK. According to our survey, about 29 percent of internet respondents follow the Red Devils. Next in the ranking is Liverpool, followed by Arsenal, and Manchester City.

Which is the most popular Premier League club on Twitter?

Manchester United might have gone through a dry patch in terms of trophies for the past few campaigns, but this hasn’t done much damage to their popularity off the pitch. As of May 2022, the Red Devils had a total of 31 million followers on Twitter, more than any other club in the Premier League.

This statistic shows a ranking of advertising categories based on their television screen time during FIFA World Cup games in the United Kingdom (UK) in June and July 2018. Throughout 30 World Cup games shown in ITV, betting ads were the most prominent with a total of 88 minutes of screen time, followed by motoring ads with 68 minutes and grooming ads with 39 minutes.