Football remains Americans’ favorite sport to watch by a wide margin, but a new Gallup survey shows its lead narrowing as soccer reaches a record high — a shift that comes just weeks after the New York-New Jersey region played a prominent role in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Thirty-one percent of U.S. adults named football as their favorite sport to watch, according to Gallup, compared with 11% for basketball, 10% for baseball and a record 9% for soccer. Football’s share is its lowest since 2001, while soccer is now statistically close to the two sports that have traditionally occupied the next tier of American spectator interest.
The findings don’t include a New York-specific breakdown, so they can’t establish whether sports preferences in the state follow the national pattern. But the timing is significant for New York after the World Cup brought international soccer directly into the region, culminating with the tournament final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, marketed throughout the event as New York New Jersey Stadium.
Gallup conducted the survey Aug. 3-24, shortly after the World Cup ended July 19. The organization specifically noted that soccer’s new high may have been influenced by the tournament hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Football remains No. 1, but its lead has narrowed
Football has occupied the top position in Gallup’s polling for more than half a century.
When Gallup first asked Americans about their favorite sport to watch in 1937, baseball led with 34%. Baseball remained No. 1 in surveys conducted in 1948 and 1960 before football overtook it in 1972.
Football has led every Gallup measurement since then — 23 separate surveys spanning 54 years.
Its level of popularity has varied considerably. The percentage naming football as their favorite has ranged from 28% in 1985 and 2001 to 43% in 2006 and 2007.
Gallup also found that the time of year affects the results. Since 1972, an average of 38% of Americans have chosen football when surveys were conducted during football season, compared with 32% when polling occurred outside the season.
This year’s 31% result came outside football season and was still slightly below that historical off-season average.
Football’s position nevertheless remains dominant. No other individual sport reached even half its level of support in the latest survey.
Ice hockey, volleyball, auto racing and mixed martial arts made up the next group, each named by between 2% and 4% of Americans.
At the same time, a record 20% of Americans said they didn’t have a favorite sport at all.
Soccer reaches its highest level in Gallup polling
The most notable long-term change involves soccer.
Before 1981, fewer than 1% of Americans generally identified soccer as their favorite sport to watch. It never exceeded 2% before 2005.
That has changed steadily in recent years.
At least 5% of Americans have named soccer as their favorite in each of Gallup’s last three measurements, and this year’s 9% is two percentage points above the previous record.
Soccer’s rise has coincided with baseball’s long decline from the position it once held in American sports.
After losing the top spot to football in 1972, baseball remained the country’s second-most-popular spectator sport through the mid-1990s. It averaged about 18% during that period.
Since then, baseball has averaged about 12%, including 10% in each of Gallup’s past three surveys.
Basketball moved in the opposite direction over much of the same period. It averaged 9% from 1937 through 1981 but has averaged 13% during the past four decades. Its highest Gallup reading was 17% in 1997, when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were at the center of professional basketball.
The result in 2026 leaves basketball, baseball and soccer separated by only two percentage points.
World Cup gave soccer an unusual boost in New York region
Gallup cautioned that soccer’s latest increase may not necessarily represent a permanent change.
The survey came immediately after the 2026 World Cup, giving soccer unusual visibility throughout the United States and particularly in the New York-New Jersey region.
Eight World Cup matches were held at MetLife Stadium, including the July 19 final between Spain and Argentina. FIFA reported that each of the eight matches there drew more than 80,000 spectators.
The tournament as a whole attracted nearly 6.81 million fans across 104 matches in the United States, Canada and Mexico, setting a World Cup attendance record.
New York City also became a major center of off-field World Cup activity. City officials said more than 1 million visitors came to the New York-New Jersey region during the tournament, while watch parties and other soccer events were held throughout the city.
A FIFA soccer facility established in Central Park as part of the tournament’s legacy was expected to serve thousands of children through schools, recreation centers and community organizations.
That doesn’t prove the World Cup caused Gallup’s national soccer increase, and Gallup doesn’t provide state-level results linking New Yorkers directly to the 9% figure.
It does, however, make New York one of the places where the question of whether soccer’s momentum lasts could become especially visible in the years ahead.
Young adults are less attached to football
Age may be one of the bigger long-term challenges for football’s dominance.
Only 20% of adults ages 18 to 34 named football as their favorite sport, compared with 30% among adults ages 35 to 54 and 38% among those 55 and older.
Gallup said younger adults’ weaker preference for football helps explain why the sport’s overall share is near the lower end of its historical range.
Younger adults also have much more fragmented sports preferences.
About 10% each named basketball, baseball or soccer as their favorite, while 23% said they didn’t have a favorite sport.
That creates a much different landscape from older generations, where football holds a substantially larger advantage.
If those generational differences persist as younger Americans age, the national sports audience could continue becoming more divided among several sports rather than dominated to the same extent by football.
Race and income also shape sports preferences
Gallup found notable differences across racial, ethnic and income groups.
White adults were more likely to identify football as their favorite sport. Basketball received stronger support among people of color, driven particularly by Black adults, while soccer received stronger support among Hispanic adults.
Income produced another divide.
Thirty-seven percent of upper-income Americans chose football, compared with 32% of middle-income adults and 25% of lower-income adults.
Soccer showed the opposite pattern at the lower end of the income scale, with 13% of lower-income Americans naming it as their favorite.
Gallup said those income differences largely reflect underlying age and racial or ethnic differences rather than income alone.
Those demographic patterns could matter in a state as large and diverse as New York, although the national survey doesn’t provide enough information to determine how they translate into statewide or regional sports preferences.
Baseball faces the clearest long-term decline
Football’s lower result may attract attention, but Gallup’s historical data show baseball has undergone the more dramatic long-term change.
The sport that once clearly dominated American spectator preferences now finds itself essentially tied with basketball and soccer for second place.
Baseball’s fall wasn’t sudden. Its support declined over decades, particularly after the mid-1990s, even as football remained dominant and basketball gained ground.
For New York, that shift is notable given the state’s deep baseball history and the continued presence of the Yankees and Mets at the center of the country’s largest media market.
But Gallup’s findings shouldn’t be interpreted as evidence that New York baseball audiences themselves have declined to the same extent. The survey measures national preferences and doesn’t publish enough state-level information to draw that conclusion.
What happens after the World Cup will be the key test
The most important question in Gallup’s latest findings may be whether soccer can hold its position after the extraordinary circumstances of 2026 fade.
This year’s World Cup provided American soccer with a level of national exposure that is difficult to replicate. The final was played in the New York-New Jersey market, record crowds filled stadiums around North America and the tournament dominated sports coverage for more than a month.
If soccer remains near 9% in future Gallup surveys, it would suggest that the sport has moved into a fundamentally different position within the American spectator landscape.
If the number falls, this year’s result may instead reflect a temporary World Cup surge.
Football faces a different question. It remains comfortably ahead of every competitor, but its weaker appeal among younger adults raises the possibility that its enormous historical advantage could continue shrinking over time.
For now, the hierarchy hasn’t changed at the top: football is still America’s favorite sport to watch. What has changed is the competition underneath it, where baseball no longer owns second place and soccer has moved closer than ever to the traditional center of American sports culture.
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