Why is football the most popular sport?

Football is the most popular sport in the world. And it's one of the oldest. According to estimates, of the around 7.6 billion people making up the global population in 2018, 1.1 billion of them watched the 2018 World Cup final.

As Jon Mackenzie explains the reason behind football’s popularity may lie in its simplicity. Illustrated by Marco Bevilacqua.

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[davidkerr]

Urban dictionary said it best:

'The Beautiful Game' can be played anywhere, on almost any surface, by any number of players, for almost any length of time. And is. There is no country on earth that doesn't play. It has inspired more passion, more courage and more excitement than any other sport in history and dwarfs everything else.
Football is, without question, the defining sporting activity of the human race.

[Joeking]

I like to think it transcends language. You don't even need to speak the same language to have a kick about with someone. Truly universal.

[deckz]

Football is a universal language.

I vividly remember a random guy kicking a ball in the middle of my university's square.

More and more people joined, barely anyone spoke the same language but we all had fun in a little kick-about.

Anyone can join in and have fun.

[yazito]

Well-explained. Football at its core is the most simple sports in the world. That's why almost everyone, even those with physical disabilities, can enjoy it. Another reason is because it's a team sport so you get to enjoy it with other people.

[engineeredarmy]

In a nation where cricket is a religion, and a state where football is non existent in small towns, once i introduced to my friends. Couple of days later there were 20-30 people calling their friends and playing the game. The ground was earlier used for cricket and cricket only but then there were bricks used as goal posts on either end. But unfortunately, it was during a time when high school ended, all of them moved on to different cities for education and the game died there in the town.

[cinnamon]

Football is a religion. No other sport in the world unites people quite like this.

[suryawinangun]

I was transfer student back then in elementary. Hard to adjust to new school life, friends and environment. But once the football game played in school yard, I just jumped into it and scored a goal. This beautiful game really helped me being accepted in new school.

[willns]

Another reason is that skill and a certain amount of cleverness and required to play the game at a high level. Many other sports place an over-reliance on physical qualities and brute force. This makes soccer athletically democratic, so to speak.

[Sizdothyx]

At its core it's really just three rules

1. You have a ball
2. You can't touch it with your hands
3. Who scores more goals wins

It's so mindbogglingly simple. American sports, for the most part, have these weird rules and starts-and-stops that they're essentially institutionalized.

[dayoki]

I live in the philippines and basketball is the most favorite sport of the people here but when i was a kid our school didnt have a basketball court and people didnt bring balls to our school so we played football with a bottle filled with rocks, the kids didnt know how to properly play football all we knew was you had a ball and you had to kick it to the other side of the area where we played. It ended up kinda resembling a football game with a keeper and strikers and defenders, crazy stuff. So i really do believe that this is one of the beauties of the game, you can play it everywhere with anything.

[MartinParnham]

Kind of linked to accessibility: Football is, traditionally, a working person’s sport. In lots of countries it’s played predominantly by “poorer” people, for the reasons mentioned, and we’ve heard loads of stories of pros having first kicked a ball made out of bags tied up with laces or something.

Golf and tennis can be diluted down as well, to a lesser extent (get the he ball in the 🕳) but there is an exclusivity to them and you need a designated space. That’s where class comes in. Many people don’t have access to a tennis court, even fewer have their own one. Everyone has a ball and some space.

[timlamiam]

the simplicity of it all makes it beautiful. You can literally explain the rules in 30 seconds to a newcomer and they will have fun.

[drfox]

Couple of bricks as goal posts.. Anywhere to play.. I remember playing on the street.. Paved streets on late hours when cars are scarce.. I even played in corridors in apartment buildings.. You didn't even need a ball.. A tennis ball.. A plastic bag full of old clothes.. Even a small roundish rock or a bottle cap..
You make friends and enemies around your block..
Such a beautiful sport

[QQ]

football is not just a game its a need for many to live happily.thats the reason its the most popular game

[dylonmartinez]

I finished growing up watching the NFL and since I started watching multiple sports, Football/soccer is just about to take the number 1 spot, only difference is I live in the U.S and I have Way more people to talk NFL about that soccer, most people I work with can’t understand how popular soccer is world wide

[EmilShroder]

There's just something beautiful about the game that I can't explain. If you love it then you know it.

[Mr_Blacksmith]

Brilliant video. Reminds me of when we used to play on the streets when I was younger, we'd lose track of time and get a whooping from our parents when we got home. There were no phones back then so you'd grab a ball, we take off our shoes and go play. Sometimes if we didnt have a ball. We'd steal some plastic bags, put a handful of sand into one (that would make the first layer) and wrap as many as we can to make a ball and play until it was tattered.

I remember when I get older, my parents would get me the Fifa/Nike/Adidas Size 3 ball. I was a King in the neighborhood. I remember how I lost the first 3. One landed in a yard with 3 dogs; they tore it up, Second was run over by a car and one was stolen when I took it to school. Football holds some dear childhood memories. This was around 20 years ago and my father and father in law tell me about their footballing escapades back in their day!

[jpswaddle]

You forgot the most kicked football of modern times, the humble paper covered in parcel tape football. This football at some point has some how made its way into every work place in the World.

[thechriscrowing]

The accessibility of football is certainly one part of it, but I feel that the reason why association football specifically the #1 game in the world has a lot to do with how association football was popular in the UK during the 1800s-1900s and the British empire and trading network took that around the world. The number of prominent clubs founded in places like Italy, South America and elsewhere by ex-pat Brits shows this. So, football became global as the first sport to really become so, and then things like global radio and then TV embedded that.

The accessibility aspect is probably why football gained prominence in places that were merely connected to rather than part of the Empire - see how the prominent nations in rugby and cricket both correspond pretty closely to the commonwealth to this day (with a few exceptions) and theres maybe a class element there - guys working on ships are more likely to play football, and a pick up gamer on the dock side is more likely to get locals involved and hooked but posher folk putting down roots in their colonies are more likely to establish cricket/rugby clubs etc.

Similarly, those sports that developed in the US ended up being stuck there during the period of US isolationism before WW1 and by the time they could gain a wider audience, football was already established elsewhere (and in general, is more accessible so why change?)

[caseyimiller]

A sport that truly tests your athletic ability and doesn’t give you a break in any sort of way makes for great entertainment compared to many sports that are diluted with way more commercials