Global Tennis Popularity: Italy Tops, Spain Second
Recently, renowned market research company YouGov released the 2026 Global Sports Event Popularity Ranking report, based on its daily public surveys across 15 countries, presenting the popularity rankings of sports events and leagues.
YouGov interviews 100 respondents daily, asking about positive or negative news they have heard regarding sports events or leagues in the past two weeks. Based on this, YouGov calculates the "Net Popularity Score" — the difference between the proportion of respondents who heard positive news and those who heard negative news.
The report covers 17 sports including football, basketball, tennis, F1, baseball, and esports, as well as comprehensive events like the Olympics and Paralympics. Finally, the month with the highest score for each event or league in the past year is selected for ranking, resulting in a popularity leaderboard.
In tennis:
- Italy has the highest popularity, with four tennis events on the list: Wimbledon (2nd), ATP Finals (7th), Italian Open (8th), and Australian Open (9th).
- Spain follows, with three tennis events on the list: French Open (6th), Wimbledon (7th), and US Open (10th).
- Australia and France each have two tennis events on the list:
- Australian Open and Wimbledon rank 1st and 3rd in Australia, respectively;
- French Open and Wimbledon rank 2nd and 8th in France, respectively.
- United Kingdom has only Wimbledon on the list, but it tops the ranking.
- United States has only Wimbledon on the list, ranking 9th.
- Japan has US Open on the list, ranking 9th.
According to the YouGov report, China's list does not include tennis events; the ten events listed are:
- China Table Tennis Super League (Peak time: October 2025; Peak index: 30.5)
- Olympic Games (Peak time: January 2025; Peak index: 20.6)
- Chinese Basketball Association (Peak time: May 2025; Peak index: 18.2)
- F1 (Peak time: July 2025; Peak index: 17.6)
- Tencent League of Legends Pro League (Peak time: October 2025; Peak index: 17.2)
- Chinese Football Association Super League (Peak time: July 2025; Peak index: 16.7)
- FIFA World Cup (Peak time: November 2025; Peak index: 16.0)
- World Athletics Championships (Peak time: December 2025; Peak index: 14.7)
- Tour de France (Peak time: August 2025; Peak index: 14.3)
- NBA G League (Peak time: June 2025; Peak index: 13.4)
｜Source: Original report
｜Image credit: Original report, Wimbledon official website