FIBA: basketball is the world's 2^nd most popular sport with 3.3 billion fans (Nielsen study)

"Globally, basketball interest is projected at 69%, with over 3.3 billion fans aged between 16 and 69," announced FIBA, which published the Nielsen Fan Insights report on 24/07/2024. The consultancy and auditing firm has drawn up a study of basketball consumers at the end of 2023 (after the FIBA World Cup 2023), four years after the first report completed after the FIBA World Cup 2019.

"With almost 3 out of 4 people being interested in basketball in the researched territories (18), this makes it the second most popular sport globally behind football. This was also underlined by interest growing from 68% to 74% between 2019 and 2023.  The levels of interest are even higher among 16-29-year-olds (+10%) within the 18 markets, with an incredible four out of five people below the age of 30 all interested in basketball,"
according to the study.

The 10 markets that have seen the biggest increases in interest in the sport are, in this order: the Philippines, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Greece, Mexico, China, Argentina, Spain and Brazil; that's four Asian countries, three…