The Super Bowl’s Popularity: At Home and Abroad

Seeing the Super Bowl being the most watched television event in the United States is no surprise, but football is growing around the world. The NFL has been expanding its reach to Canada and England over the past few seasons by playing regular season games there, but those are not the only countries where the game has shown growth.

Via Statista, the upward trend of the Super Bowl here is clear.

Even after a slight dip in 2013, the Super Bowl has an undeniable increase in popularity here in the US. Thanks to Global Web Index, there are a number of signs showing how the NFL is expanding. According to the over 41,000 polled non-US residents, 38% considered themselves fans of the NFL, with 10% of that group having watched NFL games online. In terms of population percentage, almost 60% of Mexico consider themselves fans of the NFL. In terms of sheer number of fans, China’s 211 million fans and India’s 64.6 million rank as the top two countries. Strictly by population and not percentage, there are four times as many international fans than in the US.

As the number of cord cutters here in the US continues to grow — particularly among millennials — the 16 to 24-year-old and 25 to 34-year-olds are both the least likely to watch an NFL game on TV and the most likely to watch online.

Given the wide reach of the NFL as well as the trend in popularity in both the US and the world, it appears like the National Football League is rapidly becoming an international league.