What are the Most Played Sports in the World? By Matt Seban

What are the Most Played Sports in the World?

By Matt Seban

Sports have been played by humans for as long as humans have been around. From the days of Ancient China, Greece, and Egypt, various sports have been played, which built the foundation for some of the popular sports we still have today. But just what are the most popular sports that people play today? In this article, we are going to look at a few of the most popular sports which people play around the world.

Football
Football, or soccer in the United States, is one of the biggest sports ever, with four billion fans worldwide. Football dominates the sports fandoms of Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and Australia, and while it isn't as popular in North America, it is gaining in popularity rapidly. Football is also the most popular betting sport on betting websites like betstation.com.

Football, naturally, is also the most popular sport to play around the world. In most countries, football is played from an early age, since childhood. According to statistics, football has over five hundred million players in countries from all over the world. The countries where football is most popular as a played sport are England, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, and many more.

Basketball
Created in 1891 by American physician and sports enthusiast, James Naismith, basketball has since become a global phenomenon, being played all over the world by hundreds of millions of people. In places like Serbia, Greece, Croatia, etc., basketball is the most popular played sport, and it is also hugely popular in the United States (of course), Canada, Japan, and many, many more.

Volleyball
Another of the world's most popular sport is volleyball. Volleyball has close to a billion fans worldwide, and it is played by hundreds of millions of people. What makes volleyball so popular is that it can be played on multiple different terrains, such as a field, or more importantly, on the beach. This, effectively, makes volleyball the most popular summer sport, as people of all ages go to the beach and play one of the most popular sports in the world.

Golf
Golf is traced to the 1700s, and was created in England's northern neighbor, Scotland. The Scottish Highlands lend themselves perfectly to the game, and upon being discovered by foreigners it quickly spread worldwide, and soon became one of the most popular sports around the world. The popularity of golf can be attributed to the minimal physical exertion necessary to play the game. This isn't to say that physical exertion is not needed to play golf. In fact, golf is a great game for people who need to stay fit and healthy, however don't have the physical capabilities to play some more physically tasking sports.

Chess
What many don't know, is that chess has been recognized as an official sport by the International Olympic Committee since the 1920s. What this means is, chess is technically, the most popular sport played around the world, with over 600,000 players the world over (100,000 more than football).

Revised: 01/14/2022 - Article Viewed 1,291 Times

About: Matt Seban

Matt Seban is a turf aficionado, golf travel junkie, and self-proclaimed fairway repair specialist. By day, he runs a successful landscaping business, making the world greener one yard at a time. By night (or whenever he can sneak away), he moonlights as a golf travel writer, covering course openings, redesigns, and turf management techniques with the enthusiasm of a man who truly believes grass is his spirit animal.

With over 20 years of turf management experience—specializing in athletic field turf—Matt has a deep appreciation for the delicate balance of maintaining perfect playing surfaces. He’s been known to roam fairways armed with a bottle of seed and sand, patching divots like a wandering golf course doctor. Rumor has it, every time he takes a divot, a little piece of his soul dies.

Matt has played golf in more than 30 states and teed it up on over half of America’s Top 100 Public Courses. He also has a deep appreciation for golf course architecture, especially from the Golden Age of design in the 1920s. When he’s not repairing divots or admiring strategic bunker placements, you might find him competing in hickory golf tournaments, dressed in period attire and wielding century-old clubs with a surprising amount of skill.

Whether he's diving into the nuances of classic course design or debating the best strains of bentgrass, Matt brings a unique perspective to golf travel writing—one that’s equal parts historian, turf geek, and weekend warrior. Follow along as he shares his insights, adventures, and (hopefully) some perfectly manicured fairways.