The 10 most followed sports leagues in the world. Despite the low turnout in stadiums, Serie A is still among the 10 most followed sports leagues in the world.
In first position there’s Major League Baseball while the Italian Serie A is in the 8th position of the rankings. However, it’s important to understand that Serie A is included in the Top-10 if the total turnout in the stadiums is taken into consideration. In the 2015/16 season the fans populating the stadiums were 8.6 million divided in 380 games for an average of about 22,600 per game. On the other hand, if we consider only the average in Italy instead it ends at the 13th place worldwide.
Possibly the objective must be an average of 30,000 spectators per game. Precisely 30 years ago, in the 1986/87 season, Serie A was engaging 30,872 spectators per game (7.4 million total people.) Moreover, we have to consider that the teams participating in the league were 16, 4 less than now, therefore the games were 240 instead of 380.
Let’s see which are the 10 most followed sports leagues in the world.
- Major League Baseball (USA + 1 Canadian team): 73.7 million total viewers for an average of 30,500 spectators per game. 2,417 games are played. 30 teams are included;
- Nippon professional baseball (Japan): The Japanese Baseball League is the most followed competition in Japan. 2 million viewers for an average of 28,200 people spread over 858 games played by 12 teams;
- National football league (USA): The American football league holds the record of spectators per game: 68,400 on average. A total of 17.5 million people following the 256 games during the season. 32 teams are competing;
- Premier League (UK): The British football league is followed by 13.8 million people, an average of 36,400 spectators per game. 380 games played by 20 teams. These numbers are definitely going to rise because teams such as West Ham, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Manchester City are increasing the capacity of their stadiums;
- Bundesliga (Germany): The German league is only behind the Premier League in reference to total spectators engaged, however, it stands in the first position for average attendance per match (43,300) among football championships and in second place behind the NFL if we consider sports worldwide. The overall attendance is 13.2 million viewers on 306 games. 18 teams are involved. We can easily foresee that if the league will be extended to 20 teams the Bundesliga would register a whopping 16 million It’s interesting to know that the Bundesliga 2 engages 19,155 spectators per match (22nd on the worldwide average) for a total of 5.8 million of people;
- La Liga (Spain): The most important Spanish championship engages 10.7 million total viewers, an average of 28,800 per game. 380 games played by 20 teams;
- English Football League Championship (UK): The second division British League is the most followed championship even if it is not a major league. 7 million viewers for an average of 17,500 per game. 24 teams included for a total of 556 matches. However, as stated above, we should remember that the Bundesliga 2 holds a better average attendance per game;
- Italian Serie A: The inadequacy of the stadiums is clearly a major issue for the Italian league, however, the Serie A remains a world-class sporting competition. It’s followed by6 million people for an average of 22,600 per game (13th in the world);
- Ligue 1: The French league engages 20,900 people per game for a total of 7.9 million total. 20 teams competing in 380 total games;
Korean professional baseball (South Korea): The Korean Major League of Baseball is played only by 10 teams that compete in 720 games. The average is 10,200 people per game for a total of 7.3 million of spectators. These numbers are slightly higher than the audience collected by the American Major Soccer League that is a league that is growing fast.
