Soccer is now the third most popular sport in the United States. Not eventually. Now. Before the 2026 World Cup circus even arrives on home soil, the shift has already happened.
Ampere Analysis, a media and sports research firm whose data was published by The Economist, ranked U.S. sports by fan share. American football sits comfortably at the top with 36%. Below it, basketball. Then soccer — ahead of baseball, a sport that spent most of the 20th century defining American identity.
How the rankings actually break down
The full order according to Ampere Analysis:
- American football — 36% fan share
- Basketball
- Soccer
- Baseball
Baseball fans will argue context — regional loyalty, generational habit, the sheer volume of games played. Fair points. But fan share doesn't lie about where attention is going, and right now it's going to soccer.
What makes this more than a one-cycle story is what's happening at the youth level. A 2024 Aspen Institute study found that Americans aged 6 to 17 already prefer soccer over American football. Among the youngest group in the study, it sits alongside basketball and baseball as the three dominant youth sports.
The generational shift that changes everything
This is where the long-term picture gets genuinely interesting. Youth participation numbers don't just reflect what kids like — they predict what adults will watch, buy, and bet on in 15 years. A generation raised playing soccer becomes a generation that follows leagues, knows players, and treats the sport as default viewing rather than novelty.
The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, will accelerate all of this. TV rights, sponsorship money, and sportsbook markets around soccer are already growing — and a home World Cup with 48 teams will pull in audiences that have never seriously watched the sport before.
Baseball didn't lose its audience overnight. But soccer didn't build its American one overnight either. The Aspen Institute data suggests the foundation is already poured. The sport just has to hold the line it's already crossed.
