Sports – one of the oldest and the ultimate form of entertainment for the human race. Since our childhood, we were kind of hooked to various kinds of sports. Well, most of us might have considered being a professional sportsman at least once in our lifetime.
But have questioned yourself what is the most played sports in the world? There are seven billion people on the earth and each race; each tradition has their own favorite sports they cherish in their heart. Here’s our list for top 10 most played sports on the earth.
Football/Soccer
Have you ever seen the fever of “World Cup Football” every four years? If you are not well aware of the charisma of football, you must see the streets of South America, Europe, or Asia. People just simply go crazy! You can see flags of different countries, people cheering (roaring to be precise!), kids running around basking in the glory of football. But that’s just the scene of the World Cup; people are addicted to the club games too. FIFA published a consensus report that says about 265 million people play football in the world that is almost 4% of the global population.
Oh, by the way, don’t get it confused with America football! Americans know this game like soccer.
Badminton
Yes, next on the list is badminton – two players hitting a shuttlecock across the net to win the dual. Some can confuse badminton with tennis, but badminton is extremely popular in Asian countries. It could be the reason behind so many great badminton players coming from this vast continent. Especially, in the winter people find a game of badminton quite irresistible in this region. Statistics report say that about 220 million actively play badminton!
Hockey
Nothing is quite as entertaining as seeing two teams’ rivalry in a game of hockey. This fast action game is extremely popular in many parts of the world. Both the field hockey and the ice hockey are equally popular. Especially in Canada, Sweden, the USA, Russia, and India hockey is a sports everyone loves to play and watch. IFA the International Federation of Hockey has there are about 1.4 million ice hockey players. If we combine both types of form of hockey, the number of players easily surpass 2 million boundaries.
Volleyball
The number of volleyball players in the world according to some statistics might surprise you. Various surveys say that there are 998 million volleyball players in the world! Well, we cannot be sure if the number of players determines the popularity of the sport. If you think about it – volleyball cannot beat football in the game of popularity. But still, the volleyball is a widely popular sport that has an affiliation with more than 220 national volleyball federations.
Basketball
Basketball – the great American game! There are about 450 million basketball players in the world who love this fine sport. People are insanely hooked with basketball, thanks to the legendary players like Michael Jordan, Koby Bryant, etc. The game is gradually spreading from the strong, deep roots from America to the whole world. It could be on the top of our list, but it doesn’t have that much of influence over the common people like football has.
Tennis
If you are considering the sports that have individual players playing each other, tennis would surely be the number one sports in the world. People recognize tennis as a game of friendship, fitness, mental strength, and stress reliever. Maybe that’s why about 60 million people actively play this sport. Not only the single version but also the double version is equally popular among the people.
Cricket
Though cricket is not that much popular in all the parts of the world, the number of supporters and sheer denotation for this sport in many parts of the world makes cricket stand apart from the crowd. The Indian sub-continent (India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) has a population over 1.7 billion people and people in this region worship this game! Cricket is equally popular in Australia, New-Zealand, England, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and in South Africa. There are about 55 million cricket players in the world.
Table Tennis
You could easily call table tennis the most popular indoor game in the world. As table tennis is integrated into the schools, clubs, and the sports centers as a mind refreshing and focus increasing sport, the popularity has even got higher. Especially, in Asia, table tennis is insanely widespread. The numbers say that over 300 million people play table tennis. So, if we considering the only number of players, table tennis is the third most played sports in the world.
You may also like: best table tennis tables for outdoor
Baseball
How can we miss this great American game? You could call it the American version of cricket as cricket is the elder brother here. Though baseball is American-fever, it is not that much popular in the rest of the world. However, the scenes are changing. More people from different countries are getting in love with this marvelous game. Including both the baseball and softball, there are about 65 million players. Softball is the just the female version of baseball.
Golf
Golf is the most loved and played sport among the elite class of society. Golf Today, the sports magazine claim that golf has about 60 million active players in the world. Even the mini-golf version has a lot of admirers and fans. You can even play golf using various simulators. These best home golf simulator for 2019 might make you feel that you are actually playing it outdoors!
Final Thoughts
With smartphones and digital gaming is taking over the minds of the children, it is high time we promoted playing sports in the physical world. Playing sports could be the purest form of happiness a human can feel.
So, this was our list of top 10 most played sports in the world. So, what do you think? Which form of sport does give you an adrenaline rush? Let us know in the comment section below!