Ever wondered where tennis is most popular in the world? Well, to answer that question we’ve analyzed search volume data and online interest for tennis in every country around the world and compiled a list of the most interesting tennis popularity statistics for 2021.
Key tennis popularity statistics
Here are the biggest tennis popularity statistics and figures:
● Tennis is most popular in Bulgaria, with just over 5080 searches per million people.
● Austria ranks third in the world for tennis popularity according to search volumes for the
sport.
● France is responsible for more than 10% of global searches for “tennis”.
● The UK is responsible for just over 4.6% of global searches for “tennis”.
● More than 16% of global searches for “tennis” come from the United States.
● Within the US, most interest in tennis is shown in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington DC & Florida.
Is tennis a popular sport?
Yes, without a doubt, tennis is a very popular sport. In fact, approximately 87 million people play tennis around the world. That’s 1.17% of the world’s population that plays tennis. Tennis is one of the most watched sports on TV and is widely accepted as one of the most popular individual/non-team sports in the world.
In fact, when analyzing Google Trends Data for tennis compared to other sports at a global level, tennis appears to be ahead of many sports in terms of its search interest. As expected, major team sports such as football (soccer) and basketball are more popular, though tennis appears to attract more overall interest than other individual sports such as boxing, swimming
and cycling.
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Tennis popularity around the world
To my surprise, our research has revealed that tennis is most popular in Bulgaria. With an impressive 35600 average monthly searches for “tennis”, I found that there are approximately 5080 searches performed per million people in Bulgaria. This may be a shock to many, but there is no doubt that tennis is booming in Bulgaria. Since 2016, Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) has
been home to an ATP 250 event, attracting tennis talent from across the globe. The country has also hosted a variety of ITF events in recent years. And of course, let’s not forget the small matter of success of Grigor Dimitrov who has been challenging at the top of the men’s pro tour for several years now.As expected, Australia and France, both home to a Grand Slam tournament, also made it to the top of the list. The sport has been very popular in these two countries for decades and appears obvious based solely on the amount of young talent produced by Tennis Australia and the
French Tennis Federation (FFT). However, we were amazed to find that France is responsible for more than 10 of global searches for “tennis”, with the country averaging 171,000 searches per month.
Austria also showed a staggering amount of interest in tennis, making it the third most popular country for tennis. An average of 23600 searches a month for “tennis” are carried out in Austria, equivalent to approximately 2620 searches per million people. Austria, just like Bulgaria, has shown increasing interest in the sport. The country has been home to the Vienna Open since 1974, an event recently raised to ATP 500 status in 2015. In addition, Austria hosts a large number of other pro tennis events including the ATP 250 Kitzbühel (2009 to present, excluding 2010) and the WTA 250 Linz Open (previously a WTA International event). And last but not
at least, there is no doubt that the success of Dominic Thiem in recent years has helped propel Austria to the top of the tennis world.
Tennis popularity in US
For many years now, there has been a growing concern over the popularity of tennis in the United States. Since the likes of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick retired from the sport, many believe tennis in America has been on a steady decline. Nevertheless, search interest appears to be growing.
Search volumes for “tennis” in the US have been on a constant rise since 2015. Search volume appears to have more than doubled in the past five years. Now I am not saying that American tennis is booming, but there is still hope for the sport in the United States. After all, Serena Williams continues to search for that elusive 24th Grand Slam title, which causes surges in
interest for the sport every time the opportunity to claim it arises. And recent success of American youngsters could likely continue to give the sport the boost it so needed. There is no doubt that the recent Grand Slam success of Sofia Kenin at the Australian Open 2020 put tennis back on the radar in the United States.
I've looked into the popularity of tennis across the United States at a state by state level, and it will come as no surprise that interest in tennis is highly linked to the location of pro tournaments across the country.
According to Google Trends data, most interest in tennis is shown in New York, of course home to the nation’s US Open Grand Slam tournament. Large amounts of interest in the sport also appear in Connecticut, New Jersey, DC & Florida.
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