Majority of Americans consider football 'America's sport' in new poll
53% of U.S. adults ranked football as America's sport compared to 27% who said baseball
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Football has overtaken baseball as "America’s sport" by a wide margin, according to a new poll ahead of Super Bowl LVIII.
The Pew Research Center released the results of a new study on Monday that asked approximately 12,000 U.S. adults "if you had to choose one sport as being ‘America’s sport,’ even if you don’t personally follow it, which sport would it be?" A majority of those polled, 53%, responded with "football."
"More than half of Americans (53%) say America’s sport is football – about twice the share who say it’s baseball (27%). Much smaller shares choose one of the other four sports we asked about: basketball (8%), soccer (3%), auto racing (3%) or hockey (1%)," the survey read.
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Nearly twice as many Americans ranked football as America's sport over baseball. (Getty Images)
Football remained the top response across all demographic groups, including White, Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans. Men and women across all age groups also agreed that football is "America’s sport."
However, racial groups were divided among what other sports they would consider. White Americans were more likely to answer baseball, while Black and Asian Americans said basketball and Hispanic Americans were more likely to respond with soccer.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Although a majority ranked football as "America’s sport," people also admitted that they largely do not pay close attention to sports.
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An American flag is displayed on the field as Sheila E. performs the national anthem before a game between the New England Patriots and the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on October 15, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
"Most U.S. adults (62%) say they follow professional or college sports not too or not at all closely, and a similar share (63%) say they talk about sports with other people just a few times a month or less often, according to the Center’s August survey. In fact, only 7% of adults are what might be called sports ‘superfans’ – people who follow sports extremely or very closely and talk about sports with other people at least every day," the survey read.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The poll was conducted in August 2023.
Despite people viewing football as "America's sport," most do not follow sports closely. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)
Regardless of how closely people follow the football season, the Super Bowl remains one of the most top-watched events of the year. In 2023, Fox Sports reported that an average of 113 million people watched Super Bowl LVII on FOX, the largest audience since 2017.