Sports in the United States
Sports in the United States are a significant aspect of the nation's culture. Historically, the most popular sport has been baseball. However since the mid 20th century American football has slowly become the most popular spectator sport. Additionally, basketball and ice hockey saw a significant growth during this period due to the advent of television. As such, the sanctioning bodies of these sports (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL) comprise what broadcasters refer to as the "Big Four" of the sport industry. These sports, with the addition of soccer, are the most popular sports played at the youth level.
In the first half of the 20th century boxing, collegiate rowing, and collegiate football were among the most popular sports after baseball. Soccer has emerged as the fourth most popular sport in the 21st century, surpassing ice hockey. Roughly 27% of United States-based sports fans show an interest in soccer, compared to a global average of 40%. By contrast, American football is the most popular sport in the United States with 52%. Basketball with 43% and baseball with 37% are further behind. Approximately 17% of the people in the United States follow ice hockey.
Golf, tennis, and collegiate basketball are other spectator sports with longstanding popularity. Tennis is currently considered to be the sixth most popular sport in the United States. Most recently, mixed martial arts has been breaking records in attendance and broadcast viewership for all combat sports.
Based on revenue, the Big Four of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada are the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL), with Major League Soccer (MLS) gradually developing in popularity. Just in the year 2024, the NFL generated over $23 billion, making them the most valued professional sports league in the United States and the world. With the addition of multiple TV/Streaming contracts that have been recently signed, we can only expect for this number to continue to increase.
The market for professional sports in the United States is about $69 billion, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined. All these leagues enjoy wide-ranging domestic media coverage and, except for the Major League Soccer (MLS), all are considered the preeminent leagues in their respective sports in the world. Although American football does not have a substantial following in other nations, the NFL does have the highest average attendance (67,254) of any professional sports league in the world. MLB has the second highest average attendance of any sports league in the United States (29,293), followed by the MLS, the NBA, and the NHL. Of these five American-based leagues, all but the NFL have at least one team in Canada.
Professional teams in all major sports in the United States operate as franchises within a league, meaning that a team may move to a different city if the team's owners believe there would be a financial benefit, but franchise moves are usually subject to some form of league-level approval. All major sports leagues use a similar type of regular-season schedule with a post-season playoff tournament, instead of crowning as champions the team with the best won/loss record against all the other teams. Significantly, in all the major sports leagues in the United States (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS), the teams which set the best regular season record in the history of their respective leagues did not go on to win the championship, even as many low-seeded teams in the playoffs have in fact gone on to win the title. These are factors which are cited as adding to the excitement and relevance of the post-season, and justifying all teams' attempts throughout the regular season to at least qualify for the postseason even as wild cards.
In addition to the major league–level organizations, several sports also have professional minor leagues, active in smaller cities across the country. But as in Canada and Australia, sports leagues in the United States do not practice promotion and relegation, unlike most sports leagues in Europe.
Another notable distinction is that most sports fans in the United States tend to follow more than one team sport, depending on the time of year, unlike the case in many parts of the world where fans might avidly follow only one team sport such as soccer or baseball. Thus, it is possible for an American sports fan who follows multiple sports to spend practically every single day of the year watching professional sports, since there is no time of year when all the Big Five leagues would be off-season.
Furthermore, sports are particularly associated with education in the United States, with most high schools and universities having organized sports, while college sports competitions play a very important role in the American sporting culture. In fact, college basketball and college football are more popular than professional sports in some parts of the country, a unique sporting feature in the United States. The major sanctioning body for college sports is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Colleges collectively receive billions of dollars from TV deals, sponsorships, and ticket sales. In 2019, the total revenue generated by NCAA athletic departments added up to $18.9 billion.
Based on Olympic Games, World Championships, and other major competitions in respective sports, the United States is the most successful nation in the world in American football, basketball, baseball, athletics, swimming, lacrosse, beach volleyball, figure skating, tennis, golf, boxing, diving, shooting, rowing and snowboarding, and is one of the top five most successful nations in ice hockey, wrestling, gymnastics, volleyball, speed skating, alpine skiing, bobsleigh, equestrian, sailing, cycling, weightlifting and archery, among others. This makes the United States the most successful sports nation in the world. The United States has been referred to by some as the Hegemon of World Sports. The United States has placed first in the Summer Olympic medal table 19 times out of 30 Summer Olympics and 29 appearances. Unlike most other nations, the United States government does not provide funding for sports nor for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. The United States Olympic contingent is additionally the only Olympic contingent in the world to receive no government funding; neither training and development costs nor prize money are provided by the U.S. national government.