Viewership for soccer and women’s sports is on the rise, according to a new Global Sports Report from Nielsen. Specifically, U.S. interest in soccer is expected to grow 62% among soccer fans owing to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted across North America. As for non-soccer fans, their interest is expected to increase by 11%, according to Nielsen Fan Insights.
Globally, soccer (known as football everywhere else in the world) has long been the biggest sport. Nielsen found that, on average, 51% of people say they’re fans of the sport. For comparison’s sake, only 42% of people said they were fans of basketball and 39% said they were fans of swimming.
Yet despite its global dominance, soccer hasn’t been as embraced in the United States. Only 27% of the U.S. population currently considers themselves a soccer fan. That may be a low percentage, but it accounts for 62.2 million people, making the U.S. the fourth largest soccer fanbase in the world. Between the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and major tournaments taking place in 2025 and 2027, interest in the sport is expected to increase in America.
Additionally, 76% of soccer fans are either Millennials or Gen Z, the two demographics that advertisers covet most. Nielsen also revealed that 22% of soccer fans are Hispanic and 34% earn a household income of $100,000 or more a year.
Women’s sports also emerged as another major area for growth. In 2024, 50% of the general population said they were interested in women’s sports, a 5% jump from 2022. Some of the highest interest in this genre comes from China and India, two of the biggest markets in the world. There’s also evidence of strong growth in smaller markets like Germany and the U.K. Similarly, women are becoming bigger sports fans overall. In 2024, women represented 47% of fans of women’s sports and 42% of fans of men’s sports. That’s up from 45% and 40%, respectively, from the prior year.
But perhaps unsurprisingly, the story in women’s sports has to do with the WNBA. The fanbase for the sport has grown 31% in two years, hitting 46.9 million fans in the U.S. Viewership for the regular 2024 season also grew 201% compared to the season prior.
The last big takeaway that Nielsen’s report found was that media companies’ recent investment in the linear and streaming rights for live sports has expanded how people watch these events. Between 2022 and 2024, the number of fans aged 50 years or older who regularly use streaming to watch sports media grew 21%.
“The global sports industry is experiencing an exhilarating evolution, as live sports continue to grow and extend into all parts of media,” Jon Stainer, global general manager for Nielsen Sports, said. “The data in our 2025 Global Sports Report illuminates precisely the opportunities that exist for these partners as the worldwide appeal of live sport, especially with major, worldwide sporting events on the horizon, gains even more momentum.”
