NFL or UEFA Champions League: Which Sports Event is More Popular? (Archive)
With Super Bowl LVI in the books, the UEFA Champions League knockouts underway and the 2022 World Cup looming on the horizon, taking stock of the state of American football versus European football (or soccer as it is known stateside), is par for the course.
The Super Bowl and the Champions League final are two of the biggest sporting events on the annual calendar. As it so happens, this year is also a World Cup year.
All three of these events typically draw attendance in the 50,000+ range, viewers in the hundreds of millions and betting in the billions globally. However, by most metrics that one uses, European football (or soccer), as a whole, beats American football by a country mile on all these scores.
The NFL’s popularity is on the rise around the world with the league committed to expanding its brand globally. And while it has made significant gains behind marketing initiatives in the UK and Mexico in recent years, those are nowhere near enough to close the gap on soccer, which is also an ever-growing sport and nowhere more so than in the United States.
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Soccer, also known as the “beautiful game,” has a rich history that goes back forever. In recent years, the sport has been propelled to prominence in America, thanks to its growth on both the men’s and women’s front.
The Major League Soccer (MLS) is moving from strength to strength steadily while the women’s national team has become the best in the world with stars like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd and Hope Solo, amongst several others, becoming household names globally.
Viewership
The FIFA World Cup is the biggest global soccer event while the UEFA Champions League is the biggest European soccer event. Both command massive viewing numbers and have a bigger reach around the world than Super Bowl.
According to the latest statistics, over 200 countries watch both these soccer events while NFL is transmitted to 180 countries.
Super Bowl LV won by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the expense of the Kansas City Chiefs recorded a viewership of 110 million. The 2021 UEFA Champions League final won by Chelsea over Manchester City recorded 700 million viewers.
Super Bowl LVI viewership went up by 2.3 million from last year with NBC revealing 112.3 million people tuned into the showdown between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams.
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The 2022 Champions League final matchup is yet to be decided and won’t be held until late May. The knockouts got underway with the Round of 16 on February 15 and culminate with the finale in St. Petersburgh, Russia on May 28, 2022.
Based on past numbers, the Champions League final is bound to knock those of Super Bowl LVI out of the park, especially if the final features at least one team from Europe’s most bet-on league, the Premier League.
Star Power, Social Media, Endorsements
The profile of soccer players is also bigger than those of NFL players. Social media figures attest to that with players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi leading the charge.
As of February 2022, Ronaldo emerges with the most popular Instagram accounts based on the number of followers. He is the most-followed person on the photo-sharing app platform with 401.2 million followers. Messi has approximately 256 million followers.
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Arguably, World Cup numbers dwarf those of the Super Bowl as do Champions League figures. This includes everything from viewing to betting on these events at the top online sportsbooks.
Ronaldo and Messi are also two of the most endorsed athletes in the world. Messi commands approximately $130 million in endorsements while Ronaldo comes in with $120 million. Paris Saint Germain star Neymar comes in at $95 million.
By contrast, the most endorsed NFL player is Dak Prescott with $107.5 million while Tom Brady takes in around $76 million in endorsements.
Betting on Football
According to Forbes, approximately $4.3 billion dollars was bet on the Super Bowl last year. With the legalization of betting in a number of states, those figures are expected to be much higher this year. High enough to give soccer a run for its money?
States are beginning to post the figures, but it will be some time before the complete picture is made public. The American Gambling Association projected $7.6 billion to be bet this year on Super Bowl LVI, although those projections are yet to be confirmed.
According to FIFA, the 2018 World Cup took in roughly $155 billion worldwide with an almost $8 billion bet on the final between France and Croatia.
The UEFA Champions League also commands large wagering amounts worldwide, but not nearly as high as those of the World Cup or, even, the Super Bowl.