Soccer/football, cricket, basketball, tennis, volleyball, baseball, rugby, ice hockey, golf and American football are the world’s top 10 most popular sports. These popular sports are watched and played by billions worldwide and feature heavily in domestic and international tournaments. Many of them have devoted fans worldwide and a long, storied history and cultural significance in the nations where they are most well-known. In this article, we’ll examine the scope of each of popular sports in further detail.
Top 10 popular sports in the world
Soccer/Football
Undoubtedly Soccer, often known as football, is a team sport involving eleven players split evenly between two sides. The game’s main objective is kicking the ball into the opposing team’s goal. The team that scores the most goals wins the game.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, with an estimated 4 billion followers and 270 million players. It is played professionally in more than 200 countries and is the national sport of several nations. Every four years, FIFA hosts the World Cup, which is largely considered the most watched and followed sporting event globally (an estimated 715.1 million people watched the 2018 tournament’s final match).
The origins of soccer may be traced back to ancient civilizations in China, Greece, and Rome, but the contemporary version of the game began to take shape in England in the 19th century. The first professional league was created in England in 1888, and the first international match was played between Scotland and England in 1872.
Cricket
Especially Cricket is played by two eleven-person teams using bats and a ball. The field is rectangular, and at either end is a wicket consisting of three vertical stumps. The team with the highest run total is declared the winner.
The Commonwealth countries aren’t the only ones where you’ll find cricket fans. It is played widely in the Commonwealth of such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the West Indies and is considered the national sport of England. The International Cricket Council is the sport’s supreme international governing organisation (ICC). The Cricket World Cup, one of the most watched and followed athletic events in the world, is organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and takes place every four years.
Basketball
In basketball, two teams of five players compete to see which can score the most points by sinking a series of shots through a hoop. The court is rectangular, with a hoop at each end where the game is played. To win a game, a team must score more points than its opponent.
Professional basketball leagues can be found in various nations due to the sport’s widespread appeal. Regarding spectatorship, it is right up there with the biggest names in sports. The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) is the sport’s supreme body; it oversees both the World Cup and the Olympic basketball tournaments. When it comes to professional basketball, there is no better league than the NBA in the United States.
Tennis
Tennis is played by two or four people using rackets and a tiny ball on a rectangular court separated by a net. You must strike the ball to win so your opponent can’t make a legal return. If a player hits the ball over the net and into the other team’s court or if the other team fails to return the ball within the court’s boundaries, that player earns a point. Moreover Playing tennis on grass, clay, or hard courts is possible.
Volleyball
Volleyball is an international team sport played between two teams of six players on a court with a rectangular shape and a net separating the teams. The goal of tennis is to send the ball into the other player’s court by hitting it over the net. When a team either smacks the ball out of bounds or fails to return it over the net, the other team scores a point. Both indoors and outdoors, players use their hands and/or arms to hit a volleyball.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball game between two nine-man teams, played on a diamond-shaped field with four bases. The goal of baseball is to have one team score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat. And then going around the bases, while the other side seeks to avoid runs by getting hitters out. An inning is a team’s turn at bat, and a whole game consists of nine innings. Moreover At the end of the game, the victor is the team who scored the most runs. Professional baseball is played in the Americas, Latin America, and Asia.
Rugby
Rugby is a contact sport in which the oval-shaped ball is moved from player to player by kicking or passing. The game’s purpose is to score points by kicking the ball through the goalposts or carrying the ball across your opponent’s goal line. Several countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and France, are particularly fond of rugby.
Ice Hockey
Extremely fast-paced, ice hockey is played between two teams who strive to score by shooting a hard rubber puck into the opposing team’s goal. Canada, the United States, Sweden, Finland, and Russia are just a few cold-weather countries where the sport is widely practised. Moreover Millions of people all over the world watch it as a spectator sport.
American Football
American football is played between two teams of eleven players on a field with goalposts at both ends. The goal of football is to advance the ball towards the opposing team’s end zone or to kick the ball through the uprights. Teams from various countries, including such as United States, Canada, Mexico, and Japan, play American football.
Golf
The objective of golf, a popular leisure activity, is to use a range of clubs to strike a small ball into a set of holes on a course. As with other forms of golf, the goal is to finish the course with the fewest strokes possible. Golf is a game that can be played by people of varying skill levels and is best experienced when playing outside on a course. Players must use their feet to get around the course. And use their brains to choose the best club and shot if they want to complete a round. The game can be played in various formats, such as stroke play, match play, and others. The game of golf has been around for quite some time, and its popularity continues to grow.
