The Growing Popularity of Rugby in the US – How Popular is this Sport Really?

Sports have always had a huge role in people’s lives. There are those who enjoy spending their weekends on the couch, with some food, watching their favorite sport. Those who like to gamble online and use coupon codes such as the Quinnbet Coupon Code to maximize their fun, also love to place bets on their favorite teams or most interesting games. One of the sports that always manages to make people excited and united in front of their TVs or at a stadium is certainly rugby. 

Rugby is now a sport popular everywhere in the world, but somehow we always connect it with the UK. But is rugby popular in the US and if so, how much?

World popularity 

If you live in a country where rugby isn’t one of the most popular sports, you might not realize just how many people all around the world love it. We can also see the growing popularity in the number of rugby players – obviously, if the sport wasn’t popular, there wouldn’t be so many enthusiastic children wanting to play professionally. For example, just in the year 2016, the number of rugby players went from 4.91 million to 5.3 million, which is simply impressive.

If you were wondering where exactly this sport is played the most, it is the national sport in New Zealand, Wales, Tonga, Madagascar, and several other countries. But what about the US?

Rugby in the US

In the US, the sports that everyone keeps talking about are usually basketball and football; however, rugby is thought to be the fastest growing sport in the US. This means that more and more people every year tune into the games, buy tickets to see their teams live, and talk about the sport. If this trend continues, rugby could one day become the most popular sport in America, surpassing all others. Just in five years, between 2011 and 2016, rugby became 82.4% more popular in the US!

According to research, there are now more than 30 million people in the US who are fans of rugby. The only other country that has more rugby fans is China.

We can also notice the popularity of the sport in rankings of the US teams, especially for the women’s rugby team – they have usually been in the top 10, even reaching the 5th position in the world rankings.

Will it grow even more? 

Considering the fact that rugby is now an Olympic sport, it will definitely get even more popular everywhere in the world. When the US team starts making notable results in the big championships, as well as at the Olympics, the country will start pushing the sport even more forward than they do now, which will in turn result in more people joining the sport, both as players as well as fans.