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Why are sports important? What are the 10 most popular sports in the world? Read this article to find out.
A healthy life is what we all wish to lead. To lead a healthy life, we need a healthy body that includes physical and excellent mental health.
Sports play an essential role not just in developing our health but also in imparting character values.
Advantages of Sports
Here are a few advantages of sports that you need to know before we dive into the 10 most popular sports in the world.
A. Healthier Heart
Since the heart is a muscle, it needs to be exercised to keep healthy and fit.
When the heart is regularly challenged to exercise a little more, it will improve performance and circulate blood around the body more efficiently. This, in turn, improves our overall health too.
B. A Sound Sleep
Sports and exercises trigger certain chemicals in the brain that make us feel relaxed and happy. Also, when we engage in outdoor sports, the fresh air benefits us and helps us get a good night’s sleep.
C. Increase in Confidence
People playing sports daily and working toward their goals develop their abilities and confidence.
It can be easily observed in tournaments and matches that require team participation. All members of the team are united and confidently put their skills to the test.
D. Meet New People
It is because of sports that people from diverse communities, beliefs, and backgrounds come together. It helps you interact with new people daily with whom you may not have communicated otherwise.
E. Better Mental Health and Reduced Stress
When a person is physically active, the mind gets distracted from life’s daily stress and strains. Also, the stress hormones in the body are reduced during physical activity, and endorphins are released.
Regular participation in sports also helps in achieving good mental health. Sports enhance our sense of well-being, improve our mood, reduce stress or anxiety, and thus protect us from depression.
Sports have several other advantages that improve and balance our overall life. The choice of sports may vary from person to person. However, certain sports are being viewed and played by large masses.
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The criteria for ranking sports based on popularity depend on various factors such as the global fan base, viewership or people who have watched sports, access to the general public, sponsorship deals, presence of social media, and many others.
The 10 Most Popular Sports in The World
Here are the most popular sports in the world.
1. Soccer/ Football
With a fanbase of 3.5 million worldwide, soccer tops the list of the ten most popular sports in the world. It is commonly called soccer or football and is played between two teams of eleven players each, using a spherical ball.
This sport is played on a rectangular field, and there is a goal at each end of the field.
Soccer aims to score using any part of the body except the hands and the arms to get the ball to the opposite goal.
The only players who can use their arms and hands to touch the ball till it is in play are the goalkeepers.
Football’s most significant sporting events are the FIFA world cup, which is held every four years and has enormous prize money for the winning team and the Premier League.
2. Cricket
It is one of the most popular sports globally and is loved by 2-3 billion people. The game of cricket is played using a bat and ball.
It is played between two teams comprising of 11 players each on a field. There is a 22-yard-long, rectangular pitch at the center of the area.
The two teams competing with each other take turns to bat. Each team tries to score the maximum number of runs while they bat. When one team bats, the other team is fielding. Each turn is called innings.
There are three different formats in cricket known as T20, Test, and ODI. The popularity of cricket has seen a tremendous increase after the introduction of the T20 format.
Cricket is very popular in many countries, including India, England, Australia, Pakistan, West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh.
3. Basketball
With a fanbase of 2 to 3 billion, Basketball is the third most popular sport out of the ten most popular sports globally.
Basketball is a sport played between two teams of five players each. It is played on a rectangular court—the aim is to shoot a ball through a hoop measuring 18 inches in diameter. The hoop is mounted to a backboard at a height of 10 feet.
A field goal of 2 points is scored if the ball is shot through the basket during regular play.
4. Hockey
With 2.2 billion fans in the world, field hockey and ice hockey are the fourth most popular sport in the world. In hockey, two teams compete with each other by trying to maneuver a ball into the opponent’s goal with the help of a hockey stick.
Field hockey is the national game of India and Pakistan . Ice hockey is prevalent in many places like Sweden, Canada, the USA, and Latvia. The presence of this game on social media is average and not impressive.
5. Tennis
Out of the 10 most popular sports in the world, tennis is in fifth position. It is a sport that people may play as individuals against each other ( known as singles) or as teams having two players each ( known as doubles).
Tennis is played using a racket, which is strung by a chord to strike a rubber ball around the net such that it is in the opponent’s court.
The game’s objective is to play the ball so that the opponent cannot play a good return. This sport is more prevalent in developed countries than in developing countries.
Tennis players like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have hundreds of millions of fans worldwide and are known widely.
6. Volleyball
Volleyball is a sport loved by a broad audience and is lived by 900 million people spread across Australia, America, Europe, and Asia.
It is one of the most popular sports globally and has gained a lot of recognition as a team sport. In Volleyball, each team tries to ground the ball on the other team’s court under specific rules to score points.
Since 1964, Volleyball has been part of the official program in the Summer Olympic Games.
The social media presence of Volleyball is low compared to other sports, but its fans widely follow it on TV in the Olympic games.
This is one of those sports which are widely accessible to the public as it requires only a ball and a net.
7. Table Tennis
This sport has 900 million fans from Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. This makes it one of the 10 most popular sports in the world. Table tennis is also known as ping pong and is equally played by both men and women.
In this sport, two or four players in teams of two compete against each other and use a racket to hit a lightweight ball back and forth. Table tennis is played on a table that is divided by a net.
While playing, the players must ensure that the ball played towards them must bounce only once before they return the ball, except for the initial serve.
The internet popularity, as well as the social media presence of this game, is moderate.
8. Baseball
With 500 million fans in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Japan, and the United States, baseball has become the eighth most popular sport globally.
Baseball is a game that requires a bat and ball. It is played between two teams consisting of 9 players each, and each team takes turns batting and fielding.
The bases in the series are first, second, third, and home plate. The offense puts all its efforts to score more runs than the opponent by hitting the ball with a bat thrown by the pitcher and then moving in the counter-clockwise direction around the four bases.
A run is scored when the runner returns to home plate after advancing through all the bases.
This sport is prevalent only in the countries where it is played, and the same goes for its viewership on television.
9. Rugby
Rugby stands in the ninth position in the list of the 10 most popular sports in the world.
It has more than 400 million fans, mainly across England, South Africa, New Zealand, and France. This game was introduced in the 19th century by English-speaking settlers in England.
The fans of rugby eagerly await the Rugby world cup. Rugby is a full-contact team sport and is based on running with a ball in hand. The TV viewership of rugby is quite good in the countries where it is played.
10. Golf
At the tenth position among the most popular sports, Golf has a million fans in Europe, the US, and Canada.
In this sport, the competing players use several clubs to hit balls into a series of holes using the minimum possible strokes on a course.
Golf is one of those sports which is more prevalent among older people than younger ones.
The TV viewership of this sport is high among male adults and very low among young men and women. The popularity of golf is quite limited on the internet. It is also known as a sport for the rich.
Final Words
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These were the 10 most popular sports in the world. Which is your favorite sport, and what do you love about it the most? Please share it with us in the comment section given below.
Last Updated on by Sanjana