Most Popular Sports - on Topend Sports
In the quest to determine the most popular sports in the world I have analyzed the internet traffic to the Wikipedia sport pages and the IOC website. To complement and differ from these lists, I also provide here an analysis of the most popular sports specific pages on Topend Sports, data from Google Analytics unique pageviews.
I do not suggest that this in any way reflects the popularity of sports around the world, as it represents only a sample of internet users from only parts of the world, and is heavily affected by the quality and number of pages provided on this site for each sport, and how they are ranked on Google.
The analysis was originally done in 2010 when most of the world's top sports were listed on the site, but not all sports. Since that time, a large list attempting to list all sports of the world has been added to the site, and visitors to these pages have been analysed in 2018.
Most Popular 'Topend Sports' Sports Pages in 2018
This list of the most popular sport pages from my complete list of world sports is very interesting as it is very different from other lists of the world's most popular sports, which generally have football/soccer as the most popular, with basketball, baseball, cricket, volleyball, and tennis also ranked high. Only cricket scraped into this top 20 list.
This list is not just a reflection of how many people are searching for information about each sport (see the google search trends list for that), it is also affected by how many other sports webpages are competing in the search rankings and how high that the Topend Sports pages are ranked for any given search term. The traditional Indian games of Kho Kho and Lagori may have many Indian people searching for those sports and not many other pages online with information about them.
| Rank | Sport | View Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kho Kho | 103 |
| 2 | Lagori | 96 |
| 3 | Bandy | 84 |
| 4 | Basque Pelota | 77 |
| 5 | Mob Football | 74 |
| 6 | Sepak Takraw | 71 |
| 7 | Kabaddi | 54 |
| 8 | Arnis | 46 |
| 9 | Pesapallo | 45 |
| 10 | Newcomb Ball | 42 |
| 11 | Futsal | 41 |
| 12 | Pato | 35 |
| 13 | Throwball | 35 |
| 14 | Badminton | 34 |
| 15 | Equestrian | 33 |
| 16 | Gilli Danda | 32 |
| 17 | Xare | 30 |
| 18 | Pencak Silat | 29 |
| 19 | Jukskei | 28 |
| 20 | Cricket | 27 |
Parkour is a new 'sport' gaining in popularityMost Popular 'Topend Sports' Sports Pages in 2010
The number of pages in each sports section varies, so only the traffic to the index page for each sport is shown. Most of the major sports of the world are represented, but not all. The data provided is from the full 2010 year.
The sport with the most visited index page is the adventure sports, possibly reflecting the increased popularity of extreme and adventure sports around the world, particularly with this website demographic of young sporting visitors. Tenpin bowling pages are high on the list as those pages have been on the site the longest and have always been popular. The true world's most popular sport soccer is next, though some sports which rank high on other lists of the worlds most popular sports are not all ranked high on this list.
Table of Unique Page Views of the Topendsports.com Sports Sections, 2010
| Rank | Sport | Page Views |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adventure Sports | 9588 |
| 2 | Tenpin Bowling | 7115 |
| 3 | Soccer | 6497 |
| 4 | Badminton | 5946 |
| 5 | Basketball | 5560 |
| 6 | Swimming | 5245 |
| 7 | AFL | 4522 |
| 8 | Athletics | 3937 |
| 9 | Cricket | 3727 |
| 10 | Volleyball | 3580 |
| 11 | Netball | 3508 |
| 12 | Rogaining | 2877 |
| 13 | American Football | 2875 |
| 14 | Tennis | 2751 |
| 15 | Archery | 2654 |
| 16 | Equestrian | 2500 |
| 17 | Lawn Bowls | 2376 |
| 18 | Orienteering | 2281 |
| 19 | Cycling | 2278 |
| 20 | Gymnastics | 2240 |
| 21 | Golf | 2091 |
| 22 | Handball | 1892 |
| 23 | Disc Sports | 1825 |
| 24 | Baseball | 1812 |
| 25 | Martial Arts | 1810 |
| 26 | Field Hockey | 1768 |
| 27 | Boxing | 1730 |
| 28 | Fencing | 1701 |
| 29 | Rugby League | 1614 |
| 30 | Ice Hockey | 1462 |
| 31 | Rugby Union | 1386 |
| 32 | Weightlifting | 1359 |
| 33 | Motorsports | 1315 |
| 34 | Shooting | 1310 |
| 35 | Water polo | 1273 |
| 36 | Wrestling | 1273 |
| 37 | Canoeing | 1141 |
| 38 | Softball | 1117 |
| 39 | Rowing | 1105 |
| 40 | Horse Racing | 1098 |
| 41 | Sailing | 1092 |
| 42 | Triathlon | 1024 |
| 43 | Diving | 930 |
| 44 | Surfing | 853 |
| 45 | Table Tennis | 847 |
Related Pages
- Encyclopedia of all sports of the world
- Analysis of internet traffic to the Wikipedia sport pages and IOC website.
- The most popular marial art using wikipedia pageviews
- other top 10 lists of the world's most popular sports
- Other world sport lists
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Current Events