Stuff Americans say Sport

Twitter/X post. Text: "Except NFL Football is a real sport played by actual prosperous 1st world countries, while soccer is a fake sport played by 3rd world countries".

Quora question. Text: "Are there really people in the UK and Europe who have never heard of Tom Brady?" Answer, Follow (7), Request, More

Duolingo French translation exercise on mobile. Cartoon character in red sports outfit with speech bubble: "I don't know how to play football." User typed: "Je ne sais pas jouer au soccer". Red Incorrect banner. Correct Answer: "Je ne sais pas jouer au football americain." Progress bar at 20/40

Twitter/X reply (cartoon blonde). Text: "This is why no one watches soccer. Still playing a silly game during the deadliest pandemic the world has ever seen. The NFL, which is the most watched sport in the world, would never allow this. Sad."

Reddit post. r/AskReddit by u/pabarb02 (24m). Title: "Those who don't watch the Super Bowl... why?"

Twitter/X reply (default 1h). Text: "You are correct, it will suck. Not because of the US mind you, but because soccer sucks. We Americans only play it as children until we develop real skills to play more complex games such as Football, or any other sport really. Soccer is the lowest common denominator of sports"

Twitter/X post (username redacted). Text: "That's for Pearl Harbor!" with screenshot of the 2025 World Junior Championship Final ice hockey scoreboard showing United States 10, Germany 4. USA players celebrating on ice in blue jerseys, "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" banner across the screen. 6:25 p.m. 26 Dec 24

Reddit comment thread about Shohei Ohtani. Pork_Confidence (13h): "It's such a relief knowing that. Imagine living in a world where the thing you are most passionate about and love most, meets its pinnacle and ends with you and never grows, evolves and moves forward. I am finite and enjoying my time here." killgannon09 (13h): "Let's ask Shohei Ohtani." dapper_Dev (11h): "Who?" Dr_Long_Schlong (1h, -2): "Maybe the stupidest comment ever heard of google?" Diablo_Police (10h, -41): "I understand and fully respect not following sports and not knowing much about them, but not even knowing the name of the Babe Ruth of our time (actually an understatement) is straight up ignorance of current affairs and not something to be proud of lol." dapper_Dev (10h): "I'm sorry but baseball basically doesn't exist in Europe. I can't follow greatest players of all sports in the world." BlackAlbinoTurtle (10h) corrects "doesn't exist in Europe" to "doesn't exist in piratically the rest of the world. FTFY. I don't even know the rules, I know one team throws ball, the other tries to hit and run, no idea how the points are score or what's allowed and not."

Instagram post from variety (verified). Photo of Kansas City Chiefs player in "CHAMPIONS" cap being hugged after Super Bowl LVIII, woman embracing him from behind. Headline: "SUPER BOWL 2024 WAS THE MOST-WATCHED TELECAST OF ALL TIME, REACHING 123.4 MILLION VIEWERS" - Variety. 29,864 gostos (Portuguese interface). Caption: "The Feb. 11 Super Bowl game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers brought in an average of 123.4 million viewers - the highest number of people watching the same broadcast in the history of television."

Facebook comment thread (username redacted). German-language interface (Gefallt mir, Antworten). First (Top-Fan badge, 10 Std.): "The world can not handle the complexity of this sport." Reply (username redacted, 8 Std.): "Man we do have American Football in Europe. And in South America too". Top-Fan replies (4 Std.): "ok, that is two countries. Only what, 192 more to go?"

Twitter/X thread (small/compressed, username redacted). First tweet (3d): "You guys call soccer 'football' that's not normal." Reply (13h): "I'm just gonna drop this here" with a world map colour-coded by what each country calls the sport - the vast majority say "football" or local variants (futbol, Fussball, futebol), with only a handful saying "soccer". Reply (12:41 pm, 26 Dec 20): "It's amazing to see how few countries know that 'soccer' is the correct term. :/"

Twitter/X thread. The Washington Post @wash... (19h) tweet with article and photo of the Tour de France mass crash - cyclists piled up on the road. Headline: "Tour de France official says woman who caused huge crash will be sued". Reply (username redacted, 6:59 PM, 6/27/21): "She brought attention to a sport that not many watch. Before this not too many people knew that this event was happening. They should be thanking her"

Reddit post. r/todayilearned by u/No-Arm- (5h). Title: "TIL that in the UK, it is extremely rare for a football club to relocate to another city, since the team is inexplicably tied to the city and culture there, rather than just being operated like a business." Small thumbnail of a football ground from en.wikipedia.org.

Reddit post. r/NoStupidQuestions (15m). Title: "Why don't Europeans know about the Super Bowl?" Text: "So I've been staying in Europe for about 9 months now. It's because my job asked me to. I'm staying in this city called 'Birmingham' in England and I've made some friends and the guys are really into anything sports but mainly soccer. The other day I started talking to him about the Super Bowl and he just looked at me confused. I know football isn't as big here, but I would have expected a sports guy to at least understand some of what I was talking about but no nothing? I honestly thought everyone knew about the Super Bowl." Reply from mugenhunt (13m): "Why would they? It's the championship for a sport they don't follow, which is pretty much only played in the US and Canada. How much do you know about the cricket championships?" OP (8m, -1): "I mean cricket is no where near as popular as the Super Bowl"

Quora page. Tags: Events, Mass Media, Television. Question: "What is the singular most viewed TV event of all time?" 4 Answers. First (username redacted, Escort Driver, May 31 2018): "The moon landing". Second (username redacted, tv connoisseur, May 31 2018): "I would have guessed one of the SuperBowls. But according to Fast Company, it's the Opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Go figure!" with link to "The 10 Most-Watched TV Events In History"

Photo of a TV/monitor screen showing a gaming chat. Conversation between users (username redacted): "think we are talking about two different footballs lol". Green: "I mean football. As in your foot kicking balls". Red: "I did ask, are you talking about real football, or the one everyone outside the US calls football. But then you said where you live football is a religion, and that is only true in texas." Red links: "r/usdefaultism". Green: "so, were you talking about soccer?" Another user: "mean football as in 90% of the world". Spanish text visible at bottom

Two-panel Wojak meme. Top: UK flag face in a cycle - "INVENT A NEW SPORT" then "SPREAD IT AROUND THE WORLD" then "BE BAD AT IT" (looping arrows). Bottom: US flag face - "Invent new sport" then "No one else wants to play it" then "You're world champions" (looping arrows). Caption: "A tale of two nations". 47 notes, Jul 13th 2021. Reply (username redacted): "Who needs sports when you have money? Sounds like this meme was made by a lazy socialist. Go back to watching anime and your onlyfans site"

Instagram/social media post showing an NFL player in Philadelphia Eagles jersey on the field at Caesars Superdome, holding up a small whiteboard with "WORLD CHAMPS" handwritten on it. Fox Sports watermark, image 6/6. 76.8 tusind (Danish) likes

Reddit poll. r/polls by u/AbsoluteMad-Lad (9h). Title: "Who's the Greatest of all time?" Tagged Sports. Text: "Best pro athlete in history. Please say who you think is the best in comments if you choose other". 4,879 votes. Results: Michael Jordan 924, Lebron James 161, Muhammad Ali 1.5k, Tom Brady 417, Babe Ruth 299, Other (Your choice) 1.6k. Every named option is an American athlete

Reddit comment thread. Post title: "Why is soccer such a popular sport in the UK?" Objective-Resident-7 (14h): "Football is popular all over the world, including in the USA. American 'football' is not. Surely that tells you something." JimmyButlerMVP_ OP (14h, -33): "Most countries are too broke to afford helmets and pads. Soccer is just cheaper cuz all you need is the ball." Smooth-Routine-6363 (10h): "It wouldn't be an american posting if we didn't have 'the entire world has no money, only we have money' damn american propaganda is dumb"

TV screenshot (blurry/low quality) showing a "TOP 5 GREATEST ATHLETES OF ALL TIME" graphic. Male presenter gesturing at the list: 5. Serena Williams, 4. Tom Brady, 3. Babe Ruth, 2. Muhammad Ali, 1. Michael Jordan. Every athlete is American

For context, the following is from Wikipedia

Although numbers are unreliable, it is generally accepted that the most widely watched events worldwide are international sporting events such as the Summer Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, and the Cricket World Cup with annual events such as the CMG New Year’s Gala in China, Super Bowl in the U.S., the Indian Premier League in India and the UEFA Champions League finals in Europe picking up large regional audiences.

Other broadcasts frequently claimed to have broken records include news events such as the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing, funerals of significant figures such as Michael Jackson, Diana, Princess of Wales, or Elizabeth II, and music events such as the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert, 1993 Super Bowl Halftime Show, or the CMG New Year’s Gala that is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world’s most watched television programme.

List of most-watched television broadcasts - Wikipedia

Most watched TV broadcasts in India

Show	Episode	Millions	Date
2025 Indian Premier League	RCB vs PBKS (final)	578	3 Jun 2025
2011 Cricket World Cup final	Sri Lanka vs India (final)	340	2 Apr 2011
2015 Cricket World Cup	Australia vs India (semi-final)	309	26 Mar 2015
2023 Cricket World Cup	India vs Australia (final)	300	19 Nov 2023
2019 Cricket World Cup	India vs New Zealand (semi-final)	283	16 Jun 2019
2015 Cricket World Cup	India vs Pakistan (group stage match)	282	15 Feb 2015
2015 Cricket World Cup	India vs West Indies (group stage match)	262	16 Jun 2019
2015 Cricket World Cup	India vs South Africa (group stage match)	257	22 Feb 2015
2015 Cricket World Cup	India vs Bangladesh (quarter-final)	251	19 Mar 2015
2025 ICC Champions Trophy	India vs New Zealand (final)	230	9 Mar 2025
2025 ICC Champions Trophy	India vs Pakistan (group stage match)	206	23 Feb 2025

Most watched TV broadcasts in the USA

Broadcast	Millions	Date
Apollo 11 Moon landing	125–150	20 Jul 1969
Super Bowl LIX	133.5	9 Feb 2025
Super Bowl XXVII Halftime Show	133.4	31 Jan 1993
Super Bowl LVIII	123.7	11 Feb 2024
Super Bowl LVII	115.1	12 Feb 2023
Super Bowl XLIX	114.4	1 Feb 2015
Super Bowl LVI	112.3	13 Feb 2022
Super Bowl XLVIII	112.2	2 Feb 2014
Super Bowl 50	111.9	7 Feb 2016
Super Bowl XLVI	111.3	5 Feb 2012
Super Bowl LI	111.3	5 Feb 2017

China Central Television’s main evening news broadcast Xinwen Lianbo has a daily audience of around 135 million people. Chinese boxer Zou Shiming’s professional boxing debut on 6 April 2013 generated an estimated 300 million viewers. Another professional boxer Qiu Xiaojun attracted around 200 million people for his fight against Ghanaian fighter Raymond Commey on 12 February 2016.

And

Euro 2024 tops the ranking of the world's most streamed sports events in 2024, beating the Paris Olympics — Euro 2024 topped the ranking of the world’s most streamed sports events in 2024, beating the Paris Olympics — Inside World Football