In the history of modern sports, ball games have always played an extremely important role. Whether it is the popularity of the project among the masses or the influence of related events, ball games are the undisputed king of sports.
So, among the existing ball games, which balls can be called the first echelon?
1. Football
Football is the number one sport in the world, there is no doubt about this. According to the official data released by FIFA, a total of 3.572 billion people watched the last World Cup held in 2018. Excluding those under the age of four, that's more than half of the world's population.
In the last World Cup alone, the final between France and Croatia attracted more than 1.12 billion viewers around the world, which is more than the annual viewership of the other 99% of sports events combined.
2. Tennis
In the topical competition of the world's second ball game, tennis has maintained a leading position in the voice for many years. As a sport with a long history, tennis has done a great job in ball sports, whether it is in terms of regional coverage, total popularity, and commercial value. Compared with basketball in the "three big balls", tennis has a wider coverage and is spread over all continents. In Europe and South America, tennis is as powerful as basketball.
In addition, tennis is the number one individual sport in the world and does an excellent job of gender equality. In the business value list of athletes over the years, all female athletes who can reach the top 100 are tennis players.
3. Basketball
In the past few decades, the development of basketball in the world has been quite rapid. Among them, the NBA league's years of deep cultivation in the "globalization" strategy is indeed a driving force that cannot be ignored.
Air Jordan, Mamba Kobe, Emperor James, Curry, and other leading basketball players have become global idols beyond sports at their peak.
Basketball players have steadily occupied more than 20 positions in the Forbes Top 100 Athlete Earnings list in recent years. Capital does not lie, which is also a side note of the huge influence of basketball in the world.
In the future, whether the influence of FIFA international events can be improved or not will be a key factor in determining whether basketball can achieve further development in the future.
4. Rugby
Rugby is mainly divided into British and American. The former is extremely popular in the Commonwealth of Nations, and the latter is extremely popular in North America.
It is popular in the most economically developed countries, and has a total viewing base of more than 500 million people, making the influence of rugby in the world not to be underestimated.
Rugby may not have the upper hand in terms of the number of popular countries. However, as a professional development of ball games, rugby can be regarded as a benchmark-level existence. Taking the most famous NFL league as an example, a single sponsor's one-year season contract amount can be as high as tens of millions of dollars.
The commercial value and social media effects brought by a single Super Bowl game are enough to top the commercial value created by most ball games throughout the year.
5. Cricket
In the Commonwealth of Nations, South Asia, and other places, cricket is extremely popular. When a sport has a popular population of well over a billion people, even if the area of popularity is too concentrated, it should not deny its unique excellence as a sport.
Cricket is closer to a chess-like game than the ever-changing, dizzying ball game. However, a cricket match is played for six hours or more every day, and the cycle of the competition is quite long, which is too unfriendly to the spectators.
Plus, cricket is one of those classic sports where participation is far more fun than viewing, so for many years, cricket has struggled to become a mainstream business whirlwind around the world.
