How popular is basketball in your country?

[Spens1]

I'm from Turkey but I live in New York. People all around the world think that basketball is the first sport in the USA but IT IS NOT! Unfortunately I used to think like that but I was disappointed when I came here. so the placement is,
1-) American Football
2-) Baseball
3-) Ice Hockey
4-) Basketball

behind ice hockey? i know there is a big 4 there and basketball is behind football and baseball but also ice hockey

Yes Unfortunately Ice Hockey is more popular than basketball in New York. Take a look at New York Ranger's games or New York Islander's games and after that take a look at a Knicks game. You will see the difference buddy. It is sad.

wow i'm surprised, i mean fair enough the knicks have been so damn awful and even when they've been good the fans have been on edge, so thats why maybe (though i don't know much about the islanders but the rangers are pretty good and one of the most popular

[TheTrooper]

I'm from Turkey but I live in New York. People all around the world think that basketball is the first sport in the USA but IT IS NOT! Unfortunately I used to think like that but I was disappointed when I came here. so the placement is,
1-) American Football
2-) Baseball
3-) Ice Hockey
4-) Basketball

Im from Europe, but I used to live in MA a bit and I could agree. I couldn't even notice that basketball is a sport in the USA which was a shock to me. Before arrival I expected that people would know the game, but nope - only football and baseball. I only talked about basketball with some African-Americans from time to time,but even for them football was way more popular.
Patriots stuff were all over the place this year, Celtics...besides Boston absolutely nothing.

[perempe20]

Slovenia

1. Football (Soccer)
2. Basketball
3. Ski Jumping
4. Hockey
5. Handball
6. Alpine Skiing

In terms of which sport is most played in as recreation... Basketball is #1 by faaaar.

I also like ski jumping, always watch it on Eurosport. Prevc is the best.

football is the most popular here (now we have a team in Euro2016), after handball and water polo. (the men's national water polo team won 3 straight gold medals at the Olympics from 2000 to 2008. Handball is popular for the women's national team.)

Greetings from Hungary

[HotelVitale]

I'm from Turkey but I live in New York. People all around the world think that basketball is the first sport in the USA but IT IS NOT! Unfortunately I used to think like that but I was disappointed when I came here. so the placement is,
1-) American Football
2-) Baseball
3-) Ice Hockey
4-) Basketball

behind ice hockey? i know there is a big 4 there and basketball is behind football and baseball but also ice hockey

Yes Unfortunately Ice Hockey is more popular than basketball in New York. Take a look at New York Ranger's games or New York Islander's games and after that take a look at a Knicks game. You will see the difference buddy. It is sad.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2014/04/23/the-nba-is-destroying-the-nhl-in-the-battle-for-postseason-cable-tv-ratings/

Also, the Islanders and Rangers have been top teams the last couple years while the Knicks have been junk. You're never going to get much buzz when you're 17-65.

[kurtatx]

In the US

1. American Football (NFL)
2. Baseball
3. Basketball
4. Hockey
5. Soccer/Football
6. Tennis
7. Horse Racing
8. Gymnastics
9. Track and Field
10. Swimming

Switch 2 and 3 and put NASCAR at 4/5

All things even, for Austin
1) College Football
2) NFL
3) NBA (Spurs)
4) Motor racing (USGP)

Chicago
1) NFL (Football)
2) NBA (Basketball)
3) MLB (Baseball)
4) NHL (Hockey)

[milehigh]

Hard to say in the United States it varies so much regionally.

Denver
1. Broncos (NFL) religious about the Broncos
large gap
2. Rockies (MLB) summertime in Colorado with a great location downtown. They will always have people show up no matter how awful the product on the field.
3. Whoever is better between the Nuggets (NBA) & Avalanche (NHL) could move up to #2 if they are really good.

St. Louis
1. Cardinals (MLB)

Portland
1. Timbers (MLS) best fans in the MLS
2. Blazers (NBA)

Seattle
1. Seahawks (NFL)
2. Sounders (MLS)

College basketball is huge in:
Kentucky; Tucson, Arizona; Indiana; North Carolina.

[bwgood77]

I'm from Turkey but I live in New York. People all around the world think that basketball is the first sport in the USA but IT IS NOT! Unfortunately I used to think like that but I was disappointed when I came here. so the placement is,
1-) American Football
2-) Baseball
3-) Ice Hockey
4-) Basketball

behind ice hockey? i know there is a big 4 there and basketball is behind football and baseball but also ice hockey

Only in some eastern cities, like Philadelphia and Detroit maybe.

In the U.S. overall, I think it's pretty much:

1. NFL by far
2. Basketball (but in some cities Baseball would rank ahead...like possibly NY...I would say Boston but that's probably close).
3. Baseball
4. Ice Hockey
5. Motorsports (NASCAR) but in the south, this would definitely outrank ice hockey and maybe baseball and possibly even basketball
6. Golf
7. Soccer

[bwgood77]

In the US

1. American Football (NFL)
2. Baseball
3. Basketball
4. Hockey
5. Soccer/Football
6. Tennis
7. Horse Racing
8. Gymnastics
9. Track and Field
10. Swimming

Switch 2 and 3 and put NASCAR at 4/5

All things even, for Austin
1) College Football
2) NFL
3) NBA (Spurs)
4) Motor racing (USGP)

Chicago
1) NFL (Football)
2) NBA (Basketball)
3) MLB (Baseball)
4) NHL (Hockey)

It's funny, I live in Austin as well, and I almost mentioned College football separately from the NFL, because that's all I hear about here on local sports radio. I had thrown in NASCAR. But I also think Golf is more popular than most of the others (even Soccer)...they have golf on tv almost every weekend throughout the year and way more coverage on espn than soccer.

[bwgood77]

Hard to say in the United States it varies so much regionally.

Denver
1. Broncos (NFL) religious about the Broncos
large gap
2. Rockies (MLB) summertime in Colorado with a great location downtown. They will always have people show up no matter how awful the product on the field.
3. Whoever is better between the Nuggets (NBA) & Avalanche (NHL) could move up to #2 if they are really good.

St. Louis
1. Cardinals (MLB)

Portland
1. Timbers (MLS) best fans in the MLS
2. Blazers (NBA)

Seattle
1. Seahawks (NFL)
2. Sounders (MLS)

College basketball is huge in:
Kentucky; Tucson, Arizona; Indiana; North Carolina.

Have to agree with you about college basketball in Tucson, as that's where I went to school...that's all it is. It is interesting how things change so much regionally. I've lived quite a few places.

Grew up in Phx and for the longest time it was the Suns...but the Cardinals overtook them in the past 5 years, but there might have still always been more NFL fans than NBA fans in general because Phoenix is full of transplants from all over so they follow their hometown teams. When the D-Backs won the World Series they were more popular than the Cardinals. The Cardinals really had almost zero popularity until the last decade or so. There used to routinely be more fans of opposing teams and they never sold out games. But with all the transplants and people traveling from east to warm weather during the fall, just brought tons of fans of opposing teams.

Minnesota (lived there for a year) -

When I lived there the Twins were good, so they had their fans. Overall there were probably more NFL fans, but almost half of them at that time were Packers fans. Hockey is very popular too.

I think basketball probably ranks 4th there right now after the other three which are all pretty close, but basketball could rise if that young team with all that talent begins to dominate

Denver

The Broncos (NFL) will always be #1, but when I lived there the Avalanche were definitely second, followed by the Rockies and then Nuggets.

San Diego

I've always been a big Chargers fan so this one is tough because taxpayers paid for a baseball stadium but won't for a football one, so baseball might be #1 here. Tons of Lakers fans though when I lived there. Basketball still easily third in San Diego

San Antonio

Spurs - everything Spurs
Cowboys

Austin - College football is everything, a tiny bit of talk about the Cowboys and Spurs

[NuggetsWY]

In the USA, it can be VERY regional.
Football is usually #1, especially on TV.
Baseball is usually #2, especially if there is a nearby team.
Basketball can be #2 but sometimes it's #3 - then again, there are places where hockey is ahead of basketball.
Nascar is huge in some regions and popular to some degree in most of the country. Same with golf.
Most of the other sports are popular by region/groups of people.
And that's just professional - college sports tend to have VERY loyal fans all over, most of whom attended that school.

[Hawk]

Spain:

First 120 spots go to football. A preseason friendly game of Real Madrid or Barça versus a weak team might get more attention than a Olympic basketball match.

After football, maybe basketball, but the distance is astronomical

[MyUniBroDavis]

Don't know if a treat like this already exist

In Poland basketball isn't very popular. Most popular team sport is of course european football/soccer, second is volleyball. Handball is also probably more popular so bball is number 4. But of course Marcin Gortat is a huge star here.

I wonder how it looks in other country. I only know that in Lithuania people love basketball and in UK nobody know what it is

Indonesia

Soccer is clearly first
Basketball is clearly second
Badminton lol

Basketball is ridiculously popular there, at least among English speakers and foreigners (who make up a lot of the population)

That being said, they are pathetically bad at it. The centers on school teams are like 5ft 11, there are literally teams with taller pgs than centers lol.

[JulesWinnfield]

In the US

1. American Football (NFL)
2. Baseball
3. Basketball
4. Hockey
5. Soccer/Football
6. Tennis
7. Horse Racing
8. Gymnastics
9. Track and Field
10. Swimming

I'm not sure how you can say baseball is more popular than basketball right now when the NBA finals has drawn a bigger audience than the World Series for 7 straight years now in the U.S., plus the NBA just signed a national tv deal worth double the one baseball recently signed.

Your rankings may have been true as recently as a decade ago, but for the better part of a generation the NBA has trended upward while baseball has declined as a national fixture, and now we have reached a point where the NBA has passed it. Ask yourself who the biggest baseball star currently is in this country, and their popularity isn't even in the same universe as a Lebron, Curry etc. The demographics also paint basketball's future as way better because baseballs audience skews very old and young people are giving up by the boatload. Baseball has also become incredibly regionalized and it's barely ever a topic on national sports radio, only in local markets where people talk about their own team and that's it. Basketball offseason conversation gets more play on national sports radio than in-season baseball in July

It's close now, but basketball is more popular. In about 10 years though it won't even be close. Basketball is going one direction and baseball is going in another.

[Paul Overt]

In Argentina it is like:
1. Football (soccer)
Huge distance
2.Motorsport (TC, TC2000, etc)
3.Tennis
4.Basketball (increasing)
5.Volleyball
6.Rugby (Increasing)
7.Field Hockey (increasing)
8.Handball
9. Roller Hockey



.

[Pachinko_]

Greek fans are football fans who follow basketball when basketball does well.
Football fans flowed to basketball courts when their team (olympiakos/panathinaikos) suddenly gave them what their football team will never be able to: european titles. Same with the national team: in 1987 when we won the Euro, the whole country was on the streets for days.

The basketball fan core seems large, but it's mostly opportunistic football fans who are quick to abandon basketball when it fails to meet expectations.

[Pachinko_]

Also, for South American countries we should probably exclude football from the list of sports.

Football is not a sport, it's something between a religious faith and a political belief.

[NYCLaker]

Horse racing??????

[Pitimiquel]

In Spain I'd say

1-Football
2-MotoGP, F1, tenis
3-Basketball
4-Handball
5-Roller Hockey, Waterpolo, Field Hockey

[Von Bismarck]

My two countries, from my POV;

Croatia

1. Football
2. Basketball, Handball
3. Tennis
4. Waterpolo, Volleyball, MMA, Alpine Skiing, Ice Hockey


Germany

1. Football
2. Handball
3. Basketball
4. ''Winter'' sports
5. Other

[Pitimiquel]

In Spain I'd say

1-Football
2-MotoGP, F1, tenis
3-Basketball
4-Handball
5-Roller Hockey, Waterpolo, Field Hockey

I forgot to say that now everybody is playing padel