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Super Bowl is the most watched event in the world.
As a pesky former European...
Super Bowl Audience Saints v Colts 106M international viewers.
FIFA World Cup Final Spain v Netherlands 700M international viewers (although estimates are as high as 1.75B through unofficial rebroadcasts and pirated viewing). This is a four yearly event (so may be arguably not comparable with the Super Bowl)
England FA Cup Final Arsenal v Man Utd (2005). 484M international viewers (this is an annual event so is comparable with Super Bowl) I don't have figures for 2006 onwards.
FIA Formula 1 World Championship, average race viewing figures, 520M per live broadcast race in 2009 (the FIA does not release viewing figures for individual races) this is down 13% on the previous year. So F1 beats Superbowl every live broadcast (of which there are 19 this season) by at least 4-5 times the international viewing figures.
Super Bowl Audience Saints v Colts 106M international viewers.
FIFA World Cup Final Spain v Netherlands 700M international viewers (although estimates are as high as 1.75B through unofficial rebroadcasts and pirated viewing). This is a four yearly event (so may be arguably not comparable with the Super Bowl)
England FA Cup Final Arsenal v Man Utd (2005). 484M international viewers (this is an annual event so is comparable with Super Bowl) I don't have figures for 2006 onwards.
FIA Formula 1 World Championship, average race viewing figures, 520M per live broadcast race in 2009 (the FIA does not release viewing figures for individual races) this is down 13% on the previous year. So F1 beats Superbowl every live broadcast (of which there are 19 this season) by at least 4-5 times the international viewing figures.
Very interesting post Gungnir. I'd be interested to know how popular amateur sports are in Europe. With college football being so incredibly popular here I wonder if there is an equivalent on the Continent.
Please oh PLEASE don't start talking about soccer here....
(Oh and just a correction on my last post.... Utah does have ONE non-college team that's pretty big. The Jazz..... Other than that, I stand by what I said)
Oh, and dude, the NFL is the most popular in America when it comes to PRO sports. COLLEGE football is the most popular sport in this country. It's been like that ever since the creation of the sport. Period.
It depends on where you live. In the Northeast, college football doesn't come close in popularity to the NFL or even baseball. In the south, its college football and NASCAR.
Go to Alabama.... Go to Knoxville... Go to South Carolina, Utah, Nebraska, Mississippi, West Virginia, Iowa.... Go to AUSTIN.
.
Alabama, Knoxville, West Virginia and the rest of those are not major league sized cities, but they happen to have colleges, so of course college teams will be big there. That doesn't mean that college football is bigger than the NFL everywhere...just in backwater places that have college teams but no pro teams.
Go to Pittsburgh and see who's bigger, the Steelers or the Pitt Panthers and Penn State. Go to North Jersey and see if people care more about Rutgers than the Giants or Jets.
It depends on where you live. In the Northeast, college football doesn't come close in popularity to the NFL or even baseball. In the south, its college football and NASCAR.
Well no offense, but the Northeast is just one part of an entire country. And we all know that college football isn't nearly as big there as it is in the rest of America, but it's still debatable to say which is more popular. And as far as the rest of the country goes, I still say college football is overall more popular than the NFL, regardless of where you are.
And cities and towns don't matter that much. I know Angelinos who could care less about having an NFL team there since "USC is L.A.'s team". There are alot more Florida Gators fans in Jacksonville than than Jaguar fans. Not really sure about Seattle, but it wouldn't surprise me if UW was bigger than the Seahawks (historically).
Very interesting post Gungnir. I'd be interested to know how popular amateur sports are in Europe. With college football being so incredibly popular here I wonder if there is an equivalent on the Continent.
Nope, not even semi-pro and minor professional leagues the notable exception of the annual Oxford-Cambridge boat race.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JJG
Please oh PLEASE don't start talking about soccer here....
Was just correcting a misconception, that you originally drew attention to . Per event the most popular sport isn't even soccer, it's the Formula 1 World Championship (since there are only 19 or so events, not the thousands of soccer matches).
It's not debateable at all when you look at population #s - not even close
In Mpls who do you think is more popular, the gophers or Vikings? In KC do people go out for the chiefs or KU, K-State or Mizzou? Even in a place like texas where the longhorns are super popular, the Cowboys rule the day
The vast majority of NFL teams wouldn't have billion dollar values if they weren't very popular nationwide
and UW is definitely not larger than the Seahawks and while northern FL you don't have a big jaguar fan base, the dolphins are so popular they rule the sports page across all sports in southern florida
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. Per event the most popular sport isn't even soccer, it's the Formula 1 World Championship (since there are only 19 or so events, not the thousands of soccer matches). 
