The most popular US team in the world

[Dutchball97]

No real surprise imo as the NFL is pretty much just followed in North America. Baseball and hockey are more widespread but still pretty regional. Basketball is a global sport.

[Ritzo]

I live in the Philippines and fans here are crazy about basketball. I'm sure if they know GSW they also know about Bulls, Cavs, Miami, LAL, Celtics, Spurs and Bucks. I don't know what's the criteria, maybe their most favorite team? All I know is these teams have the same popularity but it doesn't have the same amount of fans that are rooting for them.

[campaignist]

I'm really surprised there are no MLB teams at all. I noticed Japan and Cuba aren't the list, I'd think there's a good chance you'd see the Yankees or another baseball team there.

Maybe you didn't scroll down past Europe. (although Cuba is indeed missing)

Japan - Washington Nationals
South Korea - Toronto Blue Jays what?

Nicaragua - Boston Red Sox
Panama - New York Yankees
Puerto Rico - Atlanta Braves

Surprising that it's the Warriors for the Dominican Republic and not an MLB team. Was also expecting an MLB team for Taiwan.

Maybe you didn’t catch that you’re the third person to point out I made a mistake.

[JN61]

Nonsense. It's Lakers by far, followed by the 90s bulls.

[-Luke-]

Wait....what? Germany: Green Bay Packers?

There are more Dallas Mavericks fans/sympathizers (because of Dirk) in every train station bathroom in Germany than there are fans of any football team in the entire country.

[Sgt Major]

Well we got the most famous sports statue in the world. Of a guy only pretending to be a sports hero. (And a fine art museum who’s stuck with the ultimate piece of kitsch.)

A town in Serbia got it to

[Sgt Major]

Well, the fact that a sport is not accessible does not necessarily mean that people do not like it. For example, F1 is extremely popular in my country, while NFL is generally completely irrelevant among the sports fans and F1 is obviously far less accessible than handegg.

My problems with handegg are that there's countless stops and insane amount of commercials, especially during the Superbowl (this applies to most of the American sports, though). I guess I wouldn't mind all that if the gameplay excited me, of course.

[-Luke-]

Well, the fact that a sport is not accessible does not necessarily mean that people do not like it. For example, F1 is extremely popular in my country, while NFL is generally completely irrelevant among the sports fans and F1 is obviously far less accessible than handegg.

My problems with handegg are that there's countless stops and insane amount of commercials, especially during the Superbowl (this applies to most of the American sports, though). I guess I wouldn't mind all that if the gameplay excited me, of course.

Yes, I think it's more a lack of tradition and general complexity. F1 is very easy to understand whereas American Football is not for Europeans who didn't grew up with the NFL. Basketball has a long tradition not only in the US but also in other parts of the world.

There are often big differences between playing by yourself and watching. For example, table tennis is a very popular sport in my country to play, but it isn't that popular to watch.

[The Rebel]

Well, the fact that a sport is not accessible does not necessarily mean that people do not like it. For example, F1 is extremely popular in my country, while NFL is generally completely irrelevant among the sports fans and F1 is obviously far less accessible than handegg.

My problems with handegg are that there's countless stops and insane amount of commercials, especially during the Superbowl (this applies to most of the American sports, though). I guess I wouldn't mind all that if the gameplay excited me, of course.

I have watched a total of about 30 minutes of premier league, kicking a ball back and forth and running around in circles is something that 5 year olds do, yet you have millions of fans in Europe ready to kill people for their teams. I mean you may get 4 or 5 good seconds of fun content in the whole 90 minutes of watching, but hey at least they don't have commercials right?


That is the way Europeans sounds about American Football, you don't know or understand the game so obviously it is going to be hard to watch until you figure out the game. Fact is at least in the American version something other than running in circles happens.

[Cactus Jack]

Well, the fact that a sport is not accessible does not necessarily mean that people do not like it. For example, F1 is extremely popular in my country, while NFL is generally completely irrelevant among the sports fans and F1 is obviously far less accessible than handegg.

My problems with handegg are that there's countless stops and insane amount of commercials, especially during the Superbowl (this applies to most of the American sports, though). I guess I wouldn't mind all that if the gameplay excited me, of course.

I have watched a total of about 30 minutes of premier league, kicking a ball back and forth and running around in circles is something that 5 year olds do, yet you have millions of fans in Europe ready to kill people for their teams. I mean you may get 4 or 5 good seconds of fun content in the whole 90 minutes of watching, but hey at least they don't have commercials right?


That is the way Europeans sounds about American Football, you don't know or understand the game so obviously it is going to be hard to watch until you figure out the game. Fact is at least in the American version something other than running in circles happens.

No sport is perfect.

The issue with European Soccer is that money rules everything. Clubs like Man City & PSG have a huge advantage over all the rest. The same clubs compete every year in Champions League. Parity isn't a real thing. There's no real incentive for smaller clubs. At some point you will lose your best players to a bigger club that can pay them higher wages. You also face the real possibility of relegation on a yearly basis. It's a lose/lose.

American Football has it's own problems. Over-commercialization, health & head trauma, etc.

[Spice Melange]

Nonsense. It's Lakers by far, followed by the 90s bulls.

Yeah and for the fans of other teams saying their fans "travel well," I think Lakers easily own that distinction. More often than not Laker fans make up a decent chunk of the crowd in road games. Plus I dont trust this data based on google searches. I could point out the Lakers have the largest combined social media following out of any nba team and that seems more viable than this data.

[durden_tyler]

Not surprising that the NFL is not that popular overseas. Violence and committee meetings don't appeal to more rational countries.

or....instead of it being political....its because basketball is far more accessible for other countries than football is.

Why do you think soccer is the most popular worldwide sport? Its not because its the best sport, its because its one sport that requires next to no equipment to play and is not dictated by player count.

People from every country no matter how big, small, rich or poor can play soccer as long as they have something resembling a ball. Thats all you need to play.

Accessibility = popularity.

Football is probably the least accessible sport out there because of the amount of people it requires to play and expensive equipment it takes.

Its also why winter sports like skiing/snowboarding are not hugely popular even among Americans. It requires a lot of equipment, its expensive as hell and it requires the correct geography. Less accessible = less popular. You can lump golf into that equation as well.

This is true, even if soccer is the most boring among the team sports, it is indeed the easiest to "play" by fans themselves.

[Merc_Porto]

Definitely the Bulls, Lakers of course, and Warriors in the past 10 years.

[Merc_Porto]

This is true, even if soccer is the most boring among the team sports, it is indeed the easiest to "play" by fans themselves.

That's a lame excuse.
Is easier to play American Football or rugby you know by any person. You just need a ball of the respective sports and that's it.

Actually, the 3 sports are pretty easy to play.
You say football is boring and that is fair, but guess what, most of us feel the same way about American Football and Baseball.

Is boring as f*ck.

[durden_tyler]

This is true, even if soccer is the most boring among the team sports, it is indeed the easiest to "play" by fans themselves.

That's a lame excuse.
Is easier to play American Football or rugby you know by any person. You just need a ball of the respective sports and that's it.

Actually, the 3 sports are pretty easy to play.
You say football is boring and that is fair, but guess what, most of us feel the same way about American Football and Baseball.

Is boring as f*ck.

You're correct with baseball-- as boring as soccer.

[Merc_Porto]

This is true, even if soccer is the most boring among the team sports, it is indeed the easiest to "play" by fans themselves.

That's a lame excuse.
Is easier to play American Football or rugby you know by any person. You just need a ball of the respective sports and that's it.

Actually, the 3 sports are pretty easy to play.
You say football is boring and that is fair, but guess what, most of us feel the same way about American Football and Baseball.

Is boring as f*ck.

You're correct with baseball-- as boring as soccer.

Exactly then, and people seem to like the boring sport (FOOTball) more than any other sport´s in the world (even combined if you want)

Go figure. Most people in this world like boring stuff I guess.

[UcanUwill]

This is true, even if soccer is the most boring among the team sports, it is indeed the easiest to "play" by fans themselves.

That's a lame excuse.
Is easier to play American Football or rugby you know by any person. You just need a ball of the respective sports and that's it.

Actually, the 3 sports are pretty easy to play.
You say football is boring and that is fair, but guess what, most of us feel the same way about American Football and Baseball.

Is boring as f*ck.

You're correct with baseball-- as boring as soccer.

I was very casual Soccer watcher, but after subscribing to one provider that offers English premier league non stop, I got hooked, as of today I think its easily the most watchable sport, very entertaining, nowadays, I prefer watching EPL over NBA any day. If you start getting some nuances of that game, its hard to argue against it, calling it boring is ignorant IMO. NBA is not very watchable compared to FIBA and Euro ball, cause timeouts are far longer, and all the stoppage just ruins the game, at least Euroleague timeout is 60 seconds, NBA timeout is 150 seconds, I am so sick of these timeout nonsense they show nowadays. If I spend a day watching Soccer and then watch NBA at night, the pace can be such a chore.

[Cactus Jack]

That's a lame excuse.
Is easier to play American Football or rugby you know by any person. You just need a ball of the respective sports and that's it.

Actually, the 3 sports are pretty easy to play.
You say football is boring and that is fair, but guess what, most of us feel the same way about American Football and Baseball.

Is boring as f*ck.

You're correct with baseball-- as boring as soccer.

I was very casual Soccer watcher, but after subscribing to one provider that offers English premier league non stop, I got hooked, as of today I think its easily the most watchable sport, very entertaining, nowadays, I prefer watching EPL over NBA any day. If you start getting some nuances of that game, its hard to argue against it, calling it boring is ignorant IMO. NBA is not very watchable compared to FIBA and Euro ball, cause timeouts are far longer, and all the stoppage just ruins the game, at least Euroleague timeout is 60 seconds, NBA timeout is 150 seconds, I am so sick of these timeout nonsense they show nowadays. If I spend a day watching Soccer and then watch NBA at night, the pace can be such a chore.

Really depends on where you live. What you know.

Americans put up with more commercials because that's what we know. Less commercials are obviously better. But no one here pays attention to Fiba or the Euroleague, because why would we? The NBA is a local product & is considered the best from a competitive standpoint. Same reason Football/Soccer is so popular in Europe. Why would Europeans bother watching the NFL? Because it's so foreign to them. That's not the case in America.

It's all subjective.

[Merc_Porto]

Really depends on where you live. What you know.

Americans put up with more commercials because that's what we know. Less commercials are obviously better. But no one here pays attention to Fiba or the Euroleague, because why would we? The NBA is a local product & is considered the best from a competitive standpoint. Same reason Football/Soccer is so popular in Europe. Why would Europeans bother watching the NFL? Because it's so foreign to them. That's not the case in America.

But football is even more popular in the continent of America for example than in Europe. Football is not local, football is Global, the only sport that is watched on the 5 continents.

Btw Basketball is also global but as a secondary sport and only outside of 3-5 countries where Basketball is the most popular sport.

American football is not even in the top-10 of the most sports watched in the world.
Is not a matter of not having access, is an easy sport to play, and on top of that is an American sport, like movies and everything else from the USA, those things get attention, but with American football people just don't like the sport. It's not attractive.

[UcanUwill]

You're correct with baseball-- as boring as soccer.

I was very casual Soccer watcher, but after subscribing to one provider that offers English premier league non stop, I got hooked, as of today I think its easily the most watchable sport, very entertaining, nowadays, I prefer watching EPL over NBA any day. If you start getting some nuances of that game, its hard to argue against it, calling it boring is ignorant IMO. NBA is not very watchable compared to FIBA and Euro ball, cause timeouts are far longer, and all the stoppage just ruins the game, at least Euroleague timeout is 60 seconds, NBA timeout is 150 seconds, I am so sick of these timeout nonsense they show nowadays. If I spend a day watching Soccer and then watch NBA at night, the pace can be such a chore.

Really depends on where you live. What you know.

Americans put up with more commercials because that's what we know. Less commercials are obviously better. But no one here pays attention to Fiba or the Euroleague, because why would we? The NBA is local & is considered the best from a competitive standpoint. Same reason Soccer is so popular in Europe. Why would Europeans bother watching the NFL? Because it's so foreign to them. That's not the case in America.

Well, FIBA is global, but Euroleague sure, I am not saying AMericans should follow Euroleague, that makes no sense, with so little Euro countries actually having Euroleague team, I doubt many Euro basketball fans even care. Like Slovenians and Croatians had a historic Euroleague teams (Cibona and Union Olympija), but it fell apart, and they dont have a single team there anymore, so I doubt they care about Euroleague nowadays, its a league for Greeks, Turks, Serbs and Lithuanians pretty much. You care about sports where you have your own skin in a game, if Zalgiris wasnt in the Euroleague, I am not sure how much I would care even.

That said, as a sports fan, I am a fan of some leagues because they feature best athletes at the sport. Like I am NBA fan even tho I dont have local team to cheer for, I am just a casual Raptors fans since Brian Colangelo, which sounds stupid now, cause I hate Brian Colangelo, hes terrible, but he was the bridge for me cause he was first NBA GM who started bringing Euroleague players I liked to the NBA, and I am became casual Raptors fan that way. I am also a fan of Liverpool and EPL, and I always were Liverpool symphatyzer and Gerrard fanboy, but over last few years I really got into like I said in previous comment. I discovered passion for soccer. I am also a fan of F1, and I am proud to say that I was a fan way before Netflix were a thing... It is just fun seeing best of the best do things.

So I see myself being a fan of MLB or NFL, but those sports are sp exotic to me, I just don't understand it all all so I never really even tried to get into it, I will not call it boring, I will not make a joke that American football is stoppage simulator, I bet it has an appeal, I will not act like a Soccer haters here who probably never even tried to get into sport.