Football still reigns supreme as the most popular sport in the U.S., but its grip might be loosening.
Gallup recently released results of its long-running poll tracking Americans’ favorite sports to watch, and football came out well ahead of every other sport.
The poll, which was taken over Aug. 3-24, found that 31% of Americans say football is their favorite sport, 20 percentage points higher than any other sport.
The next tier, however, is much tighter.
Out of those surveyed, 11% picked basketball as their favorite sport, while 10% went with baseball and 9% chose soccer.
It’s an all-time high for soccer’s popularity in the U.S., which previously had never registered higher than 7%. As recently as 2007 the sport picked up just 2% of responses. Now
soccer is nearly tied with two pillars of North American professional sports.
It still pales in comparison to football, though, which may be in a more precarious position than its lead suggests.
The 31% figure is, in fact, the lowest share of responses for football since 2001, when 28% picked the sport as their favorite. That year, basketball surged to a 16% share, its second highest ever, and 6% picked auto racing, an all-time high for the sport.
This year, football’s share is also 10 points below the last Gallup poll in 2023, when 41% favored the sport.
It’s also notable that this year’s share is football’s fourth lowest in the 24 polls since the sport took over the most popular sports crown from baseball in 1972.
Football’s popularity, however, requires context.
The latest edition of the poll was run in August, prior to the start of football season. Based on Gallup’s own numbers, football performs worse in the poll when it takes place outside of football season.
Since 1972, football has averaged a 38% share during the season. Meanwhile, that share dips to 32% outside of the sport’s fall season. That suggests the timing of the poll may explain part of football’s 10-point drop.
Still, this year’s 31% number is lower than the out-of-season average.
Additionally, the poll is simply asking respondents for their favorite sport to watch. That means even if fewer Americans now rank football first, they may still be tuning into games.
Indeed, 16 of the top 25 spots in Nielsen’s live sports telecast rankings for Aug. 31 through Sept. 6 were for Week 1 college football games — and the top telecast was the Wisconsin-Notre Dame tilt at Lambeau Field, which drew 7.4 million viewers.
And so, football still seems quite safe as America’s favorite sport to watch for now — even if the latest poll shows a crack in its once-impregnable lead.
Americans' favorite sports to watch in 2026
- Football, 31%
- Basketball, 11%
- Baseball, 10%
- Soccer, 9%
- Ice hockey, 4%
- Volleyball, 2%
- Auto racing, 2%
- Mixed martial arts/MMA, 2%
- Golf, 1%
- Wrestling, 1%
- Ice/Figure skating, 1%
- Tennis, 1%
- Other, 6%
- None, 20%
Methodology: USA TODAY created the above graphics using data from Gallup’s recent favorite sport poll, where respondents were asked “What is your favorite sport to watch?”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is football declining in popularity? New poll reveals competition
