With the World Cup at its peak and baseball’s pennant race in full swing, a new YouGov poll finds that American football has a commanding lead over other sports in the battle for Americans’ hearts — even before the NFL’s July training camps open.
YouGov asked Americans to choose between pairs of sports. Do they like football or baseball more? Soccer or ice hockey? Baseball or basketball? All respondents were asked about all 10 unique combinations of the five sports. For each pair they had to either pick their preferred sport, or skip.
The results confirmed the massive cultural footprint of American football. 65% of Americans prefer football to basketball, its closest competitor. 69% prefer football over baseball, 71% prefer it over soccer, and 76% prefer it over ice hockey.
Americans are closely divided about whether they prefer baseball or basketball (48% vs. 52%). Soccer narrowly beats hockey in popularity (54% vs. 46%). But in the shadow of football, each of the other four sports included in the poll has its partisans. Even the least popular sport, hockey, is preferred over football, the overall champ, by one-quarter (24%) of Americans with a preference.
The popularity of each sport can vary between groups. For example, among Black Americans, basketball far outpaces everything but football: 90% of Black Americans prefer basketball to hockey, 83% prefer it to soccer, and 82% prefer it to baseball.
Soccer, by contrast, is especially popular among Hispanic Americans: 67% prefer it to hockey, 56% to baseball, and 53% to basketball.
And many white Americans prefer baseball to other sports: 63% choose it over hockey, 64% over soccer, and 54% over basketball.
Football, though, beats out all of the other four sports among Black, Hispanic, and white Americans.
Older adults are especially likely to like baseball more than other sports. Majorities of those 45 and older prefer baseball to basketball (61%), hockey (73%), and soccer (74%). Younger adults, in turn, are more likely to prefer soccer: 61% prefer soccer to baseball and 66% prefer it to hockey, while views on basketball are closely divided (46% prefer soccer vs. 54% who prefer basketball). American football is the champ among both age groups.
Overall, a majority of Americans say they’re at least somewhat interested in sports. 24% of Americans are very interested in sports, while 33% are somewhat interested, 16% not very interested, and 27% not at all interested.
Interest in sports is higher among men than women: 69% of men are at least somewhat interested in sports, compared to 44% of women. Adults under 45 aren’t more likely than older adults to be at least somewhat interested in sports, but they are more likely than older adults to say they’re very interested (29% vs. 19%).
For readers of this newsletter in the 27% who aren’t at all interested in sports, don’t worry — next week we’ll be back to politics with a look at the upcoming midterm elections.
Quick Takes
World Cup: 20% of Americans are rooting for Argentina in the FIFA World Cup final and 23% are rooting for Spain, while 14% say they’re rooting for neither and 44% don’t know
Wildfires: A July 16 - 17 survey found that 42% of Americans said air quality in their areas was being affected by wildfires, including 79% of those in the Northeast, 66% in the Midwest, 33% in the West, and 16% in the South
Testosterone: 25% of Americans say it’s generally a good thing when men increase their testosterone levels, including 11% of Democrats, 23% of Independents, and 39% of Republicans. 17% of Americans say it’s generally a bad thing
ICE: When choosing between two alternatives, 43% of Americans say the priority for ICE should be making all valid immigration arrests and 37% say the priority should be avoiding arrests that could turn violent
Appointments: When a U.S. senator dies or resigns and that state’s governor appoints a replacement, 36% of Americans say the replacement should have to be of the same party as the former senator, and 30% say it should not have to be
Graham: 20% of Americans say Lindsey Graham was very important in shaping American politics, while 32% say he was somewhat important, 11% that he was not very important, and 8% that he was not important at all
Elsewhere
Polling media partnerships
Polling abroad
Big YouGov Voter Study 2026 (YouGov UK)
Polling in the press
A Trump Obsession That Carries a Cost for Democracy (New York Times)
Nearly half of Americans think Iran war will go on for a year or beyond from now: Poll (The Hill)
DHS blinks as Susan Collins paints herself as a heroine. (Today’s Edition Newsletter | Robert B. Hubbell’s Substack)
In Defense of Reading Books (Time)
Chess is young and hip now (Axios)
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Carl Bialik contributed to this newsletter.