Popularity. In terms of player numbers, soccer is the most popular sport in the world. According to the 2006 FIFA Big Count, there were 265 million soccer players worldwide, with 270 million including referees and match officials. That's more than double America's next-most-popular sport, baseball.
World Cup winners. There have been a total of 10 World Cup victories so far. The United States has won three times, Germany two times and England once.
Top scorers. Alfred "Fritz" Walter is the top scorer in World Cup history with 16 goals. He scored eight goals during the 1958 tournament held in Sweden. His brother Edmund also played for West Germany and is second on the list with 15 goals.
Top referee. Jules Rimet is the top ref in World Cup history after he oversaw the first ever World Cup final in 1930. He was the president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), which runs today's World Cup. To this day, he remains the only person to have managed both a men's and women's championship team.
Women's soccer. Women started playing soccer in the 1970s. The first female world champion was awarded in 1991 when the United States beat Norway 1-0 in Atlanta.
Soccer is the world's most popular sport.
| Rank | Sport | Estimated Global Following |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soccer (Association Football) | 4.0 Billion |
| 2 | Cricket | 2.5 Billion |
| 3 | Hockey (Ice and Field) | 2 Billion |
| 4 | Tennis | 1 Billion |
Soccer is the world's most popular sport.
| Rank | Sport | Primary Sphere of Influence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soccer (Association Football) | Globally |
| 2 | Cricket | UK and Commonwealth |
| 3 | Hockey (Ice and Field) | Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Australia |
| 4 | Tennis | Globally |
Soccer, commonly known as football, is practiced in almost every country and is sometimes referred to as the world's favorite sport. The game's formal history, according to FIFA, spans more than 100 years, yet humans have loved the pastime of kicking a ball about for thousands of years.
The first documented match was played in England in 1866 between Cambridge University and the University of Oxford. It is estimated that at least 20 million people around the world are involved in some form of soccer activity. The most popular forms of the game are association football and rugby league. However, other games such as gridiron football, indoor soccer, and beach soccer also exist.
Association football (or soccer) is by far the most popular form of the game. Soccer is the official sport of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In addition, it is one of the oldest sports in existence: reports suggest that it was being played by children as early as 730 AD in Egypt. It is believed that many early versions of the game existed around the world with different rules, but only what has survived today has become recognized as association football.
The World's Most Popular Sports
| Rank | Sport | Primary Sphere of Influence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soccer (Association Football) | Globally |
| 2 | Cricket | UK and Commonwealth |
| 3 | Hockey (Ice and Field) | Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Australia |
| 4 | Tennis | Globally |
Updated Table of the Top 10 Most Popular Sports in 2021
| rank | Sport | Estimated Fans |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Soccer / Association Football | 3.5 Billion |
| 2. | Cricket | 2.5 Billion |
| 3. | Basketball | 2.2 Billion |
| 4. | Field Hockey | 2 Billion |
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