CHART: The Popularity Of Football In The U.S. Continues To Grow

The Harris Poll has released the results of its annual survey of the favorite sports of Americans and to no surprise, pro football is still number one by a wide margin.

When asked to pick their favorite sport, 35% of Americans picked pro football, up from 34% a year ago. Baseball (14%), was the second most popular response, followed by college football (11%), auto racing (7%), pro basketball (6%), and hockey (5%).

If we track the popularity of the sports through time, the biggest change is how the increase in pro football popularity mirrors the decrease in baseball popularity*. The other sports have been relatively unchanged with a slight surge in college football and a correction in the NBA following the Michael Jordan era.

*While this does tell us which sports are tops among fans, it is not necessarily a good indicator of overall popularity as most sports fans are supporters of more than one sport.