Have you ever wondered what the most popular sport is in each country? 

New data from Sportsboom has revealed the global favourites, from ice hockey to canoeing, presented with some captivating maps. We conducted extensive research into sports viewing trends in each country, as shown in the graphics below. While some results may come as no surprise, others are genuinely fascinating.

Football: the most popular sports

Unsurprisingly, Football is the most popular sport in Europe.  Most European countries had football as their most beloved sport. The biggest football enthusiasts on the continent included Poland, Wales, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Iceland, with a 69% popularity rate. Argentina emerged as the world's most football-crazed country, boasting an 89% popularity rate.

Other countries that followed common perceptions surrounding popular sports were the United States of America, with American Football being the most popular sport in the country. Meanwhile, in Canada, ice hockey first place, cricket topped the list in India and Rugby grabbed the top spot in New Zealand.

Countries coming in with results that might come as a surprise to some included Taiwan, with baseball, Hungary, with canoeing and South Korea where baseball claims the top spot.

The undoubted most popular sport in the world was football with it ranking first in popularity in 66.4% of countries. The most popular sporting event in the world is a hotly debated topic amongst sports fans. Today we finally have an answer (at least per country).

Sports website Sportsboom has provided data to answer this long-debated topic with some surprising results appearing. With events ranging from the FIFA World Cup to the Superbowl, we finally get to the bottom of the most popular sporting events. A positive sign from the data was the increase in popularity of women’s sports such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup which is the most popular sporting event in several countries including Argentina, Vietnam and Germany.

Following on from earlier data from Sportsboom, with the most popular sport in most countries being football, the national or global professional football events dominate a lot of countries, with the African Cup of Nations being the most watched sporting event in Congo, Guinea, Mali, and Cameroon. 

While some of the results might seem obvious to keen sports enthusiasts, being able to see exact figures and graphics laid out might help the not-so-sport-enthused population gain a little more knowledge within the area.

Adam Savinson from Sportsboom

To collect the data the team at Sportsboom used a combination of Google Trends and multiple external sources to create an in-depth index of sport searching and watching trends per country to calculate the most watched sport event in each country.

Adam Savinson from Sportsboom said: “While some of the results might seem obvious to keen sports enthusiasts, being able to see exact figures and graphics laid out might help the not so sport enthused population gain a little more knowledge within the area.

“The data also revealed some results that surprised even me with some very interesting statistics that prove even sporting experts might be limited by the countries, sports and even major sporting events they are most familiar with.”