Gallup: Football still America’s favorite sport, but losing young fans
On Jan. 16, 1972, a Gallup headline proclaimed, “Football Overtakes Baseball as America’s Top Spectator Sport,” as the research company’s survey found 38% of Americans identifying football as their favorite sport to watch while 19% named baseball. That was nearly a reversal of what Gallup had found in the previous time it asked that question, 12 years earlier. At that time, 34% named baseball and 21% football.
Similarly, in a survey conducted last month, football remains Americans’ favorite sport to watch, by a wide margin, although the 31% who name it as their favorite is the lowest in a generation.
Although football has topped the list the past 54 years across 23 separate measurements, younger adults’ lesser affinity for the sport helps explain why fewer Americans overall are choosing it as their favorite sport, according to the report. Just 20% of adults aged 18 to 34 identify football as their preferred sport to watch, compared with 30% of those aged 35 to 54 and 38% of those aged 55 and older.
Basketball remains America’s second-most favorite (11%), although its numbers have dropped since its high of 17% in a 1997 poll, when Michael Jordan’s Bulls were the sport’s dominant team.
Meanwhile, 9% of Americans identify soccer as their favorite sport, the highest Gallup has measured by two percentage points. Soccer now is nearly on par with basketball and baseball (10%).
