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
76 Road cycling 126k 39.9 38.5% Sport
77 Cross-country cycling 125k 40.6 33.9% Sport
78 Ice skating 124k 36.6 46.9% Sport
79 Kickboxing 122k 34.4 26.6% Sport
80 BMX racing 117k 28.9 43.2% Sport
81 Squash (sport) 116k 40.0 48.0% Sport
82 Downhill mountain biking 115k 40.5 33.9% Sport
83 Yin yoga 108k 40.0 71.5% Sport
84 Badminton 108k 32.7 31.3% Sport
85 Recreational diving 107k 40.0 40.1% Sport
86 Mountaineering 107k 40.1 48.4% Sport
87 Acrobatics 101k 37.9 59.3% Sport
88 Paragliding 99k 39.5 32.4% Sport
89 Women's soccer 97k 33.9 24.3% Sport
90 Wakesurfing 97k 38.8 43.2% Sport
91 Kitesurfing 97k 31.7 41.6% Sport
92 Freestyle Motocross 95k 35.1 19.3% Sport
93 Indoor soccer 92k 33.8 26.7% Sport
94 Cheerleading 91k 40.0 56.5% Sport
95 Darts 90k 29.8 36.7% Sport
96 Japanese martial arts 89k 38.1 22.9% Sport
97 Tractor pulling 89k 37.5 25.4% Sport
98 Parkour 88k 33.8 33.7% Sport
99 100 metres 86k 38.1 37.0% Sport
100 Competitive dance 85k 41.8 63.6% 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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