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
26 Wrestling 457k 33.8 18.6% Sport
27 Boxing 453k 35.2 38.9% Sport
28 Gymnastics 423k 37.7 49.4% Sport
29 Walking 419k 42.4 61.3% Sport
30 Horseback riding 390k 39.8 51.0% Sport
31 Ice hockey 375k 34.5 49.2% Sport
32 Motorcycle sport 334k 36.7 22.4% Sport
33 Jogging 320k 38.0 52.0% Sport
34 Snorkeling 300k 37.7 53.3% Sport
35 Skateboarding 279k 31.8 42.0% Sport
36 Surfing 277k 38.0 51.9% Sport
37 Spearfishing 266k 42.4 38.3% Sport
38 Electronic sports 261k 33.9 22.7% Sport
39 Cycle sport 259k 40.1 37.6% Sport
40 Motocross 248k 34.8 25.4% Sport
41 Netball 246k 36.0 57.6% Sport
42 Shooting sport 240k 40.2 33.3% Sport
43 Marathons 238k 38.5 48.3% Sport
44 Snowboarding 238k 36.6 45.4% Sport
45 Aerobics 234k 36.4 61.0% Sport
46 Long-distance running 228k 37.3 50.5% Sport
47 Grappling 227k 34.5 14.0% Sport
48 Hip-hop dance 222k 32.3 55.6% Sport
49 Cross country running 221k 39.4 49.8% Sport
50 Diving 220k 39.8 46.0% 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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