Football Retains Dominant Position as Favorite U.S. Sport

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With the nation prepared to watch the 58^th Super Bowl this weekend, Americans continue to name football as their favorite sport by a wide margin. Forty-one percent of U.S. adults say football is their favorite sport to watch. Baseball and basketball essentially tie for second at 10% and 9%, respectively. Football has been the top sport in Gallup polling since 1972, when it eclipsed baseball.

The latest results are based on a Dec. 1-20 Gallup poll. When Gallup first asked Americans to name their favorite spectator sport in 1937, 34% named baseball and 23% football. Baseball continued to rank first in subsequent surveys conducted in 1948 and 1960, before football gained the top spot in 1972.

Since then, no less than 28% of U.S. adults have ranked football as their favorite sport, with the percentages closer to 40% in polls taken over the past two decades.

Baseball and basketball have generally vied for second place since 1995. No other sport is currently named by more than 5% of U.S. adults, with soccer at 5%, ice hockey at 4%, auto racing at 3% and figure skating at 2%. Twelve percent of U.S. adults do not name any sport.

Given the large margin by which U.S. adults favor football, it is no surprise that it ranks as the top sport among all key subgroups. Men (46%) and older Americans (46% of those aged 50 and older) are the major subgroups most likely to name football. Young adults, at 28%, are least likely to do so. Young adults were also least likely to say football was their favorite sport in 2017, but that was not the case in prior surveys.

Young adults’ choice of favorite sport is more varied, with 13% naming basketball, 8% soccer, 5% baseball and 5% ice hockey, with 26% naming some other specific sport. Fifteen percent of young adults do not list any sport as their favorite.

In addition to the age differences in naming football as their favorite sport, younger and older adults also differ with respect to where they rank baseball and basketball.

• Younger adults are roughly twice as likely as older adults to name basketball as their favorite sport, with the divide evident among those older versus younger than 50.
• Older adults — in this case, those aged 65 and older — are three times as likely as the youngest adults to say baseball is their favorite sport, 16% to 5%.