The Super Bowl still manages to glue more than one in three Americans to the television, while basketball, hockey and football are experiencing their best seasons in decades. Yet there have never been so many Americans who say they don’t have a favorite sport.
The last one Super Bowlthe final of the American football championship, was watched on average by 125.6 million viewers. It means that more than one in three Americans watched TV to follow the match, as if in Italy the same event was followed by almost 22 million people, figures reached in our country only on a handful of occasions by football during the World Cup between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s. Football remains the sport that Americans they look more and what generates more businessbut in the last year basketball, hockey and football have also had ratings that haven’t been seen for a long time. At the same time, curiously, the number of those who say they have no favorite sport is growing.
American football, a national ritual: the most popular sports
According to data from Nielsen, the “American Auditel”, the final won by the Seattle Seahawks over the New England Patriots last February was the second most watched ever, behind only that of 2025. But it’s not just the Super Bowl that sets one record after another: last year 89 of the 100 most watched television programs were American football games.
One reason is the NFL schedule, because every team in the professional league plays only 17 games of championship, against 82 for basketball and 162 for baseball, and consequently every game becomes an event not to be missed. As a result of all this attention, the League grosses approx 23 billion dollars per year between television rights, sponsorships and tickets, almost double that of baseball and basketball. For comparison, the English Premier League, the richest football league in the world, earned revenue in the 2024-25 season £6.8 billionaround 9 billion dollars, while Serie A stopped at around 3 billion euros.
What are the other most followed in the USA: basketball and football are on the rise
The most sensational return is that of basketballafter years of difficulty. In 2025 the NBA Finals had stopped at just over 10 million average spectators, this year the match between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs doubled the audience, reaching 20.6 million on average, the highest figure since 1998, the year of the last NBA title. Michael Jordan. Even more eloquent is the share, i.e. the share of families watching the game among those with the television on, which according to the NBA reached 38.3%, the highest ever recorded for a final. Thanks to the Knicksthe New York team returned to winning ways after 53 years, and curiosity about the young Frenchman Victor Wembanyamaa phenomenon that represents the present and future of the league.
Even thehockey experiences a particularly brilliant moment. The NHL finals averaged 1.8 million viewers, small numbers compared to football but the highest ever for the sport, up 68% in one year. Among the reasons there is also the effect of the Milan Cortina Games, where the ice hockey tournament brought the NHL champions back to a global showcase after 12 years of absence in five circles.
Finally there is the soccer. The World Cup final between Spain and Argentina last July 19th was seen in the United States for almost 63 million people. It is half the audience of the Super Bowl, but also the highest figure ever for a football match in the country, thanks above all to the media success that the event organized between the United States, Canada and Mexico had.
Which disciplines come down and the paradox of the fans
The baseball it is the sport that over the years has lost the most ground in the hearts of Americans. Today it is Favorite sport of only one in 10 Americanseven though he defends himself well on television, so much so that Game 7 of the 2025 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays was the most watched baseball game since 1991. Even the footballwhile still by far the number one sport, loses some love. In polls he is chosen by 31% of Americans, the lowest figure since 2001, and between 18 and 34 years old just one in five.
The most surprising number, however, is another, because 20% of adults say they have none no favorite sportthe highest share ever recorded. Part of the reason lies in the fact that big events can be watched even without being fans: the Super Bowl has been a kind of national holiday for decades, with dinners with friends, advertisements that are almost as awaited as the game and a concert at halftime, and you can very well not have a favorite sport and still find yourself in front of the television that evening.
How to watch sports on TV in the United States
In the United States, the major free-to-air networks such as CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC can be received with a simple antenna and the main events, including the Super Bowl, are shared. Then there are cable channels like ESPN, and especially streaming services.
The leagues have taken advantage of this to sell the rights piecemeal, and basketball is the clearest example of this: since last season, national NBA games have been divided between three television groups: Disney, NBC and Amazon, based on the day of the week. Mondays are played on PeacockNBC’s streaming platform, on Tuesdays NBCon Wednesdays ESPN and on Fridays Amazon Prime Videowhile the weekend is divided between the various platforms. The other matches, which represent the majority, are broadcast on the regional channels of the individual teams, almost always for a fee.
For the fans it’s a little labyrinth, but for the leagues it’s a deal because by dividing the games into many packages, the NBA was able to sell them to multiple competing televisions and platforms, and the price went up. The agreements signed with Disney, NBC and Amazon cover eleven seasons, from 2025-26 to 2035-36, and are worth in total approximately 76 billion dollarsthat is, almost 7 billion for each season. With previous contracts the league grossed around 2.7 billion a year, less than half.
Who watches what according to polls
Polls show a country divided above all by age. Among those over 55, football is the favorite of almost 4 out of 10 people and baseball holds up well, while younger people are almost equally divided between basketball, baseball and soccer. Origins also count, because basketball is particularly loved by African Americans and football by Hispanics, and it is no coincidence that almost 24 million people followed the World Cup final with commentary in Spanish.
The World Series at the end of October and the new NBA season will tell whether the 2026 numbers were an exception, linked to particularly beloved teams and champions, or the beginning of a different way of experiencing sport in the United States.
