Popularity ranking · South Africa

The 100 most popular Sports in South Africa

This curated ranking covers the 100 largest sports in South Africa, ordered by estimated audience size from Rascasse's anonymized search-behavior signals. Out of 440 sports tracked in South Africa, the 100 ranked here account for the largest measured audience reach. Soccer, Golf and Basketball lead the list with a combined estimated audience of 8.1M people. Across all 100 entries the average audience size is 420k, and the largest, Soccer, reaches around 3.9M people in South Africa. Audience size is the estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with each sport, derived from search demand signals. Rankings reflect search-behavior signals collected across South Africa and are refreshed weekly.

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How to read this list

Rank

Position in the Top 100, sorted by audience size from largest to smallest. Updated weekly.

Audience size

Estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with this audience, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals.

Country share

Share of the global audience that is active in South Africa. A higher value means the audience is more locally concentrated here.

Avg age

Average age in years across the people who engage with this audience in South Africa, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals. A dash means demographic data is not yet available.

Female share

Share of women among the people who engage with this audience in South Africa. 50% is gender-balanced; values above mean female-skewed, below mean male-skewed.

Ranking

Rank Audience Audience size Avg age Female share Subtype
1 Soccer 3.9M 35.3 41.0% Sport
2 Golf 2.2M 39.5 45.7% Sport
3 Basketball 2M 35.7 41.7% Sport
4 Rugby union 1.7M 37.3 35.1% Sport
5 Swimming 1.6M 38.7 55.4% Sport
6 Cricket 1.5M 38.3 37.5% Sport
7 Baseball 1.4M 36.7 44.4% Sport
8 American football 1.3M 36.1 40.1% Sport
9 Yoga 1.1M 37.9 59.0% Sport
10 Fishing 1M 39.6 45.7% Sport
11 Volleyball 948k 36.9 50.8% Sport
12 Tennis 862k 38.7 48.9% Sport
13 Martial arts 783k 36.2 31.3% Sport
14 Mixed martial arts 777k 36.3 24.2% Sport
15 Cycling 776k 39.6 43.0% Sport
16 Road running 710k Sport
17 Bodybuilding 682k 37.5 49.6% Sport
18 Mountain biking 680k 39.3 46.9% Sport
19 Track and field 657k 37.1 45.3% Sport
20 Extreme sport 638k 37.2 41.6% Sport
21 Combat sport 603k 34.7 31.3% Sport
22 Rugby sevens 584k 39.0 44.6% Sport
23 CrossFit 574k 37.7 53.1% Sport
24 Hunting 545k 40.4 45.2% Sport
25 Skiing 504k 37.7 47.4% Sport

Want the full picture for any of these audiences?

Open any profile to see psychographics, top regions, peer affinities and demographic splits — all derived from the same anonymized signals.

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Frequently asked questions

How is this list of the most popular sports compiled?

Rascasse aggregates anonymized search-behavior signals across South Africa and ranks each sport by its estimated audience size. Only entries with at least 5 measured entities are listed.

How often is the list updated?

The ranking is refreshed weekly from the latest search-behavior data and re-published as a static page.

What is the largest sport in South Africa?

Soccer currently leads with an estimated audience of 3.9M people in South Africa.

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