Most Popular Sports in the U.S. (Based on SportsCenter stats) (football, soccer)

[BajanYankee]

CUMULATIVE STATISTICS (2012)
Total time: 23,052.75 minutes
Time (minus commercials): 17,361.25
NFL: 4,046.25 (23.3%)
NBA: 3,330.5 minutes (19.2%)
MLB: 2,916.5 (16.8%)
SportsCenter staples**: 2,289 (13.2%)
College football: 1,329.75 (7.7%)
College basketball: 1,181.25 (6.8%)
Golf: 580.75 (3.3%)
NHL: 459.5 (2.7%)
NASCAR: 362.25 (2.1%)
Other***: 315 (1.8%)
Soccer: 217.75 (1.3%)
Olympics: 166.5 (.9%)
Tennis: 166.25 (.9%)

MOST-COVERED TEAMS BY SPORT (2012)
Miami Heat (NBA): 962.75 minutes (5.5%)
New York Yankees (MLB): 410.25 (2.4%)
New York Giants (NFL): 362.75 (2.1%)
Alabama Crimson Tide (college football): 208.75 (1.2%)
Kentucky Wildcats (college basketball): 155.25 (0.9%)
Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL): 56.5 (0.3%)

MOST-MENTIONED SPORTS FIGURES (2012)
1) LeBron James: 1,930 mentions
2) Kobe Bryant: 1,345
3) Peyton Manning: 1,218
4) Dwyane Wade: 1,167
5) Kevin Durant: 1,109
6) Tiger Woods: 1,011
7) Tim Tebow: 976
8) Tom Brady: 894
9) Jeremy Lin: 871
10) Derrick Rose: 830
11) Carmelo Anthony: 804
12) Dwight Howard: 752
13) Eli Manning: 621
14) Russell Westbrook: 578
15) Rajon Rondo: 568
16) Robert Griffin III: 567
17) Josh Hamilton: 460
18) Blake Griffin: 457
19) Drew Brees: 433
20) Aaron Rodgers: 401

http://deadspin.com/what-i-learned-f...center-5979510

[Mr. GE]

cool post... thanks BajanYankee!

It wouldn't let me rep you again... lol

[aardvarks]

pretty cool, but i'm not sure these numbers are inline with the actual numbers. This is how many people are watching sports center right?

[BrianH]

I presume Sportscenter is a show of somesort ? I have never heard of it. It looks like this is just a breakdown for their show is it not ? If it is its hardly a reliable list for the most popular sports in the US I dont think.

[aardvarks]

I think its more like:

NFL- is double the NBA and MLB which are pretty even, college football is next and that crushes college basketball. the NHL and Nascar are in there somewhere not sure where though.

[BajanYankee]

Originally Posted by aardvarks

pretty cool, but i'm not sure these numbers are inline with the actual numbers. This is how many people are watching sports center right?

No. It's a breakdown of SC's coverage by sport.

[BrianH]

So the title should read "the most popular sports on SC "?

[Trequartista]

which is why i dont watch ESPN outside of the actual sporting events

[TAM88]

Football is not surprising.

ESPN is the main outlet for the NBA and as such, they give it a ton of coverage. Makes sense considering the amount of money they shelled out to get the broadcast rights. So it only makes sense that they show it a lot on SportsCenter and have a lot of articles relating to it.

[BajanYankee]

Originally Posted by BrianH

So the title should read "the most popular sports on SC "?

I'm more or less interested in the sports people are following. SC's coverage gives us some idea of that.

So far this year, NFL and NBA games were 39 of the 50 most watched sporting events in the U.S. In 2012, the NFL dominated with college football coming in a distant second. The Final Four and the NBA Finals came in close behind it. Major League Baseball was exactly where I thought it would be, which is behind the NBA, college football and college basketball.

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