Roughly 115 million people watched the Super Bowl in 2023, making it the most widely viewed U.S.-based telecast in history. Large numbers of Americans also watch or attend college sports. In August, for example, more than 92,000 people attended an outdoor women’s volleyball match in Nebraska – breaking the attendance record for any women’s sporting event in the United States.
Yet for all the fanfare surrounding professional and college sports, most Americans do not closely follow or often talk about them, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
About six-in-ten Americans (62%) say they follow professional or college sports not too or not all closely. Another 21% say they follow sports somewhat closely, while just 16% follow them extremely or very closely, according to the August survey of 11,945 U.S. adults.
Sports also aren’t an especially frequent topic of conversation for most Americans – whether that’s in person, by text, online or some other way. Some 63% of U.S. adults say they talk about sports with other people a few times a month or less often. Another 26% say they talk about sports once a week or a few times a week, and 10% say they talk about sports once a day or several times a day.
Adults under 50, women and people in lower-income households are among the demographic groups most likely to say they follow sports not too or not at all closely. Women and those in lower-income households are also among the groups most likely to talk about sports less often than once a week.
How many people watch professional sports?
Nearly 160 million people in the US watched live sports at least once a month in 2023. From 158 million in 2022, the number increased by 0.1% by 2023 to 159 million viewers. This number is expected to grow by 0.2% by 2025, reaching 162 million live sports viewers.
Which sport has most viewers?
Across 18 markets we surveyed, the most watched sport in the world is football (AKA soccer for our US cousins), with 53% following, watching, or simply interested. Next comes basketball at 40%, volleyball at 34% and tennis at 32%.
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