Which Is The Most Entertaining Sport To Follow?

Sport isn’t just sport. It’s entertainment, too.

That’s why millions of us spend much of our leisure time rooting for our team and, dare we say it, enjoying the failures of our rivals.

There are even deep-rooted psychological reasons why we get so animated when watching sports. But which sport offers the highest levels of entertainment? Let’s see.

American Football

It’s undoubtedly considered the national sport of the US, and the Super Bowl is the biggest event of the season, watched by over 125 million Americans each February.

The game itself is an enticing combination of skill, power, and strategy, which always makes for a great spectacle. There is also the phenomenon of athletes weighing 200 lbs or more being able to run like Olympic sprinters and quarterbacks throwing the ball with pinpoint accuracy even while being charged down by the giants on the opposing team.

Baseball

While it’s a game with many statistics to satisfy nerdier fans and help sportsbooks calculate MLB odds, baseball is straightforward. It pits pitcher against batter with the objective of one team scoring more runs than the other. There’s plenty for the spectator to enjoy. Balls are pitched at 90+ mph, home runs are scored, and incredible athleticism is achieved as catches are taken and batters slide to make the next base. It all makes for high-octane entertainment.

Basketball

If high-scoring games press your buttons, basketball is the one for you. Like American football, it’s played by incredible physical specimens. A 6’5” player could well go by the nickname of Shorty. Despite their height, players show vast amounts of agility and speed in this fast-moving game. The fact that it’s played indoors with spectators close to the action makes it all the more exciting and involving, which also translates when it’s broadcast on TV.

Ice Hockey

Three words describe ice hockey when it’s played at the highest level – fast and furious. The fact that players sprint around the rink on skates not only means they move fast. It also adds to the exhilaration of watching them. One problem is keeping track of where the puck is at any given moment; goals can come from anywhere. It’s also an undeniably physical game where emotions run high. So anyone who likes to see heavily-armored men scrapping on ice is always in luck.

Soccer

Soccer is the most popular game in the world, and it is played in virtually every country, with teams from South America and Europe tending to dominate. It’s called “the beautiful game” because of the players’ skills and the simplicity of its objective – using the foot or head to get the ball into the opposing team’s goal. This is harder than it sounds, hence the relatively low scores in the game. As a result, there can be long periods in which nothing happens as the teams pass the ball around, hoping to conjure up a scoring situation.

Tennis

The US Open makes for the perfect end to a year’s Grand Slam season, and while it might not have the mass appeal of other sports, it makes for an absorbing viewing experience. The amphitheater nature of the show courts creates a gladiatorial atmosphere as the players battle it out for dominance. We’re also in an era when power tennis is very much in evidence in both the men’s and women’s games. But the real beauty comes in the form of the scoring system in which players suddenly find themselves negotiating a knife-edge to stay in the match, and remarkable comebacks often happen.

Cricket

It might be surprising to find this in the list. But it’s a sport that is steadily gaining popularity in the US, where even a few games in the 2024 T20 World Cup were staged, and the USA opened the competition by beating Canada. The game has famously complicated rules, but once you’ve grasped the basics, it offers all the excitement of baseball, with the bowlers pitting themselves against the batter, who aim to score as many runs as they can for the team.

So, which of these seven sports is the most entertaining to watch? 

If we’re going by the viewing figures, it’s American football. But the nature of the game means it’s full of stops and starts disrupting the action. Soccer also has periods when not much is happening. Baseball games benefit from creating exciting situations as they reach their climax, as do tennis and cricket. Still, the result can often be as good as decided long before they end. So, we will announce a tie between basketball and ice hockey for their full-on, constant action.