Is football declining in popularity? New poll reveals competition

Football still reigns supreme as the most popular sport in the U.S., but its grip might be loosening.

Gallup recently released results of its long-running poll tracking Americans’ favorite sports to watch, and football came out well ahead of every other sport.

The poll, which was taken over Aug. 3-24, found that 31% of Americans say football is their favorite sport, 20 percentage points higher than any other sport.

The next tier, however, is much tighter.

Out of those surveyed, 11% picked basketball as their favorite sport, while 10% went with baseball and 9% chose soccer.

It’s an all-time high for soccer’s popularity in the U.S., which previously had never registered higher than 7%. As recently as 2007 the sport picked up just 2% of responses. Now soccer is nearly tied with two pillars of North American professional sports.

It still pales in comparison to football, though, which may be in a more precarious position than its lead suggests.

The 31% figure is, in fact, the lowest share of responses for football since 2001, when 28% picked the sport as their favorite. That year, basketball surged to a 16% share, its second highest ever, and 6% picked auto racing, an…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/sports/