How Popular Is Baseball in the US?
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America’s Pastime
Few would argue that baseball is America’s pastime. The game has been around for over a century and a half, and it has been enjoyed by Americans of all ages for generations. But just how popular is baseball in the United States today?
There are a few different ways to measure the popularity of a sport, but one of the most common is to look at the number of people who participate in the sport either as players or as fans. According to a survey conducted by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), baseball is the sixth most popular sport in the United States, with 26.8 million people playing it in 2018. That’s down from 27.5 million in 2017, but still ahead of other popular sports such as basketball (24.3 million), football (15 million), and soccer (13.6 million).
When it comes to fan popularity, baseball ranks fifth, behind only football, basketball, soccer, and auto racing. A 2019 survey by ESPN found that 11 percent of Americans consider baseball their favorite sport, which is down from 14 percent in 2017 but still ahead of other sports such as hockey (7 percent) and golf (6 percent).
Of course, participation and fan numbers don’t tell the whole story when it comes to popularity. Another way to measure popularity is to look at television ratings. Here, too, baseball ranks behind only football when it comes to American sports fans. The 2018 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers averaged just under 15 million viewers per game, which was down slightly from the 2017 series but still higher than any other non-football sporting event that year.
It’s clear that baseball may not be as popular as it once was in the United States, but it is still one of America’s favorite sports.
The Numbers
Though baseball may not be as popular as it once was, it is still America’s favorite pastime. According to a study done in 2019, 22% of respondents said that baseball was their favorite sport. This is down from 38% in 1972, but still ahead of football, which is at 21%.
Participation
From sandlot to Dixie, more than three million kids play organized baseball in the United States every year. A lot of boys (and girls) dream of making it to the “bigs,” but only a handful will ever get the chance to play professional baseball. In 2013, there were just over 1,000 players on Major League rosters. That’s less than 0.03% of all American baseball players!
Attendance
In 2019, Major League Baseball set an all-time record for total attendance, with more than 69.6 million fans attending games. That’s an average of about 2.5 million fans per game. The previous record was set in 2007, when more than 78 million fans attended games.
Total attendance has been on the rise in recent years, thanks in part to a surge in popularity of the sport among young people. In 2019, nearly a quarter of all MLB attendees were age 34 or younger.
Despite the overall increase in attendance, there are some concerns about the future of the sport. In particular, the average length of a game has been slowly increasing, and some fans find that it’s just too long to sit through an entire game. In 2019, the average game time was 3 hours and 5 minutes, up from 2 hours and 50 minutes in 2010.
It’s also worth noting that baseball isn’t as popular as it once was in the United States. In fact, it’s now considered to be America’s ninth-favorite sport, behind basketball, football, hockey, racing, soccer, tennis and golf.
Ratings
The numbers don’t lie – baseball is America’s favorite pastime. Here are some statistics that show just how popular baseball is in the United States:
– According to a 2018 Gallup poll, 9% of Americans say baseball is their favorite sport to watch. That’s more than twice the percentage of people who say football is their favorite sport (4%).
– Baseball has been the most popular sport in America for decades. In fact, a Harris poll from 2017 found that 43% of Americans consider baseball to be America’s “national pastime.”
The Future
Baseball has been a part of American culture for over a century now. It has been dubbed America’s pastime and is enjoyed by people of all ages. The popularity of baseball has ebbed and flowed over the years, but it seems to be on the rise again. Let’s take a look at the future of baseball in America.
Participation
Although baseball is not as popular as it once was in the United States, it is still widely played and followed. According to a 2018 Gallup poll, baseball is the third most popular sport in the country, behind football and basketball. However, when it comes to participation, baseball trails both football and basketball. According to the Physical Activity Council’s 2018 report, only 8.6 percent of Americans aged six and up play baseball, compared to 26.1 percent who play basketball and 20.6 percent who play football.
Attendance
It’s no secret that baseball’s popularity has been declining in recent years. The sport is no longer the most popular spectator sport in the country, and its fan base is getting older. In 2017, the average MLB game attracted 30,307 fans, down from 32,785 in 2007—a decrease of 8.6%. Attendance has been falling even as the league has expanded the number of games played each season and added new teams.
One reason for baseball’s decline in popularity is that it is simply not as exciting as it used to be. The game has become increasingly slow and low-scoring, with an average of only 9.1 runs scored per game in 2017—the lowest figure since 1981. This is partly due to the fact that so many teams now rely on pitchers who throw very fast but don’t have great control over where the ball goes (known as “flame-throwers”). As a result, there are more strikeouts and fewer hits, which makes for a less exciting game.
Ratings
The average age of a baseball fan is 57, according to a 2012 study, and baseball’s viewership is overwhelmingly male. In 2015, 81% of MLB’s audience was male, which is the largest gender gap of any major U.S. sport. The same year, just 8% of MLB viewers were between 18 and 34 years old, again the smallest share among major sports. These data points help explain why baseball has been struggling to attract young viewers in recent years.
There are several reasons for baseball’s declining popularity among young people. One is that the game is simply too long—the average Major League Baseball game lasts more than three hours, which is nearly an hour longer than it did in 1981. This increase in game length has made baseball less appealing to younger fans who have shorter attention spans and less free time. In addition, many young people see baseball as a “boring” sport compared to others like football and basketball, which are faster-paced and have more scoring. Finally, the cost of attending a live baseball game has become prohibitively expensive for many young people; the average ticket price for an MLB game was $28.94 in 2015, up from just $6.58 in 1985 (adjusted for inflation).