The professional sports landscape in North America has long been dominated by American Football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey, but things have changed in recent years.

Despite being one of the most popular sports in the world, soccer has traditionally struggled to compete with the big four in North America.

The NFL, NBA, MLB and MLB historically garnered most of the headlines, but soccer has made massive inroads since the turn of the century.

Read on as we take a closer look at the five main sports in North America and assess where they lie in the current pecking order.

American Football

In terms of overall popularity, almost 39 percent of people in North America claim that American Football is their favourite sport.

It is estimated that more than 208 million-plus viewers watched Super Bowl LVI in the United States, highlighting the popularity of the NFL.

While gridiron is the number one sport in terms of viewership, its participation levels lag behind three of the other four main sports.

Around 8.9 million people in the US play American Football, significantly behind basketball, baseball and soccer but well ahead of ice hockey.

Player controversies, political protests and concussion issues have had a negative impact on the sport in recent years, but it is still top of the pile in North America.

Basketball

The 2022 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics were watched by an average of 12.4m viewers in the US.

Just over 15.3% US citizens rank basketball as their favourite sport, while a whopping 24.4m participate for fun and competitively.

One of the biggest factors that contributes to basketball’s popularity is its accessibility, with social standing no barrier to enjoyment of the game.

High school and college basketball is extremely popular, while women’s basketball has made massive strides over the past few years.

With numerous NBA franchises amongst the richest on the planet, it is not difficult to see why basketball has a special place in the hearts of North Americans.

Baseball

Also known as America’s favourite pastime, baseball has long been established as one of the four major sports in North America.

However, many people think its place behind American Football and basketball will increasingly come under threat from soccer over the next few years.

More than 23.3m people regularly participate in baseball, while 14.8% of people rank it as their most favourite sport.

The 2021 World Series averaged 11.75m viewers for the Atlanta Braves’ six-game series against the Houston Astros on Fox Sports.

The final game of the series drew 14.3m total viewers, up from 12.6m viewers for Game 6 of the 2020 World Series.

Soccer

It once seemed unthinkable that soccer could break the big four’s stranglehold in North America, but that is exactly what has happened.

Soccer has made major strides in recent years from a participation perspective, with an estimated 13.6m playing the sport.

More than eight percent of people rank it as their favourite sport, putting it significantly ahead of ice hockey (3.8%) in the popularity stakes.

The sport received a significant boost when the US hosted the 1994 World Cup and should get another lift when the US, Mexico and Canada jointly host the 2026 edition.

With Major League Soccer now firmly established as a bona-fide competition, soccer undoubtedly appears to be here to stay in North America.

Ice Hockey

Ice hockey’s place in an increasingly crowded North American sports landscape has been under threat for some time now.

A lack of foresight by the National Hockey League (NHL) and its players’ union has largely been responsible for the sport’s decline in popularity.

Pulling players out of the Olympic Games denied the sport’s top stars the opportunity to strut their stuff in front of a massive global audience.

The decision is more bizarre when considered that 27.6m US viewers and half the population of Canada watched the gold medal game between the two nations at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

While the NHL has expanded to Las Vegas and Seattle, it can ill-afford this type of insular thinking if it is to force its way back into the top four sports in North America.