Popularity in Sports

A look at how the most popular athletes and most popular sports relate

By Clara Perez Alfaro for the Telling Stories with Data course at Carnegie Mellon University

ESPN's method to determine the most popular athletes

Every year, ESPN publishes their World Fame 100 List that ranks worldwide athletes by popularity. In order to rank fame, or popularity, ESPN takes 800 of the most known athletes from 78 different countries.

These athletes are then ranked using a formula that takes three factors into account: search score, endorsements, and social media followers.

The search score measures how often an athlete's name is searched for on Google and takes into account Google Trends for the athlete's most searched day. Endorsements are calculated in US Dollars and, according to ESPN, sources vary from Forbes to ESPN. In regards to social media followers, only the most popular account is considered.

Source: Sachin D. Chandan, Charlotte Gibson, Fernando Olivieri, ESPN Stats and Information. (2019). 2019 World Fame 100. Retrieved from http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/26113613/espn-world-fame-100-2019.
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Top 100 Popular Athletes by Clara Perez Alfaro

Which sports do the top 100 athletes play?

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Over 50% of the athletes in ESPN's Fame 100 list play either soccer, basketball, or cricket. Although it could be surprising that cricket has so many athletes in this list, it is important to note that this sport is played in India, one of the most populous countries in the world.

Other sports include: boxing, golf, MMA, formula one, swimming, baseball e-sports, moto GP, and figure skating.

Is there a relationship between the sports the most popular athletes play and the most popular sports?

First, we need to take into account how the popularity of a sport is determined.

Sport Show's method to determine the most popular sports worldwide

Sports Show uses 15 different criteria to establish a ranking for the 10 most popular sports. Then, they estimate the number of fans worldwide to rank each sport based on followers.

This criteria includes:

- Global fan base & audience
- TV viewership
- TV rights deals
- Internet popularity
- Social media presence
- Number of professional leagues
- Athletes' salaries
- Sponsorship deals
- Regional popularity

Read the full list here.

Source: Sports Show, Sourav Das. (2020). Top 10 Most Popular Sports in the World [Updated 2020]. Retrieved from https://sportsshow.net/top-10-most-popular-sports-in-the-world/

What are the most popular sports worldwide?

Soccer, cricket, and basketball are the most popular sports in the world. This coincides with the top three sports that are played by the top 100 most popular players.

However, do the other sports on this list relate to the most popular athletes? Let's take a look at how many athletes in the Top 100 play the most popular sports.

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Although they are some of the world's most popular sports, field hockey, volleyball, table tennis, and rugby are not represented in the 100 most popular athlete's list. It is interesting to note that although these sports have a worldwide audience, their players are not as popular as those from other local sports, like American football.

Why are athletes from some of the most popular sports in the world not popular?

Our hypothesis is that these athlete's are not as popular because they don't get paid as much.

In order to prove this hypothesis, we looked at the highest paid athletes and the sports they play.

These sports are not only not represented in ESPN's most popular list, but they also don't appear in Forbes' top paid athletes list. However, other sports that are not as popular, such as boxing and auto racing, do have athletes on this list.

Given that Forbes' ranking takes into account both salaries and endorsements this was a better indicator than simply taking a look at average salaries, because endorsements are a crucial part of popularity.

However, how can we know what comes first? Does popularity lead to a rise in pay, or a high pay lead to a rise in popularity? It depends!

In some cases, very talented athletes get high endorsements because of their talent. In other cases, athletes can get famous for other reasons and gain the attention of sponsors.

Get to know other athletes!

Volleyball, field hockey, table tennis, and rugby are all olympics sports, so Tokyo 2020 is a great opportunity to get to know more athletes. Here, we present a brief description of some of the players you can get to know for the upcoming olympics.

Facundo Conte

Facundo Conte is an Argentinian volleyball player. He plays as an outside hitter and currently plays for Sada Cruzeiro in Brazil. Conte is ranked as the best volleyball player in 2020 and will be staring in the Argentinian national team during this year's Olympics.

Instagram: @facuconte7

Carla Rebecchi

At age 35, she was the top female field hockey player in 2019. After being elected captain of the Argentinian national team, she retired to explore motherhood but returned a year later. She won the world cup with Argentina in 2010 and holds two olympic medals.

Instagram: @carlitarebecchi

Jerry Tuwai

Tuwai plays for Fiji's rugby sevens team. He won the gold olympic medal in 2016 and will be participating in the 2020 Olympics. In 2019 he won the HSBC Sevens Player of the year award

Instagram: @jerrytuwai

Xu Xin

Xin is currently ranked the best table tennis player by the ITTF. He has won several championships, both in singles and doubles, representing China. His nickname "Xuperman" means to illustrate his sueprhuman talents.

Instagram: @xuxin008

Image Sources

_{All images are from Flickr.}