Both the NFL and NBA are some of the most powerful sports leagues around the world, making them easily the biggest in the United States. Especially given the NFL’s 101-year age and the NBA’s 75-year age, these are two historically significant leagues. They are two major players in the US market, but one tends to dominate slightly more than the other.

Is the NBA bigger than the NFL? Even when looking at different financial and viewer-based metrics, it is difficult to say which league is larger. However, the NFL still appears to be the bigger league when it comes to revenue and viewership. Both leagues have different formats and organizational structures, so giving a definitive answer is difficult.

A typical NFL matchup consists of 17 games, with a maximum of 25 games for any team, including pre-season games and playoff games. Compared to the NBA, which has a regular season of 82 games, with a potential playoff season of 28 games. The rare nature of NFL fame makes it more exciting to celebrate because it is harder to achieve and the NFL advertises it in this manner. As a result, viewing figures from these two leagues can be difficult to compare.

What makes the NFL the biggest professional sports league?

If you are comparing teams in terms of revenue, this would be the first metric you should consider. Each league generates revenue through ticket sales, television deals, sponsorships, and jersey sales, to name just a few. As of 2020, however, the league revenue was $12B, a $4B loss over the previous year. The reason for this is unsurprisingly the effects of Coronavirus, which kept most fans away from the games. In fact, this revenue stat was higher than the NBA for the 2019-20 season, where the league generated $7.92 billion in revenue. So, based solely on revenues, the NFL would be considered bigger than the NBA. Forbes reports that the Dallas Cowboys are the world’s most valuable sports team, valued at $700 million more than the New York Knicks, the most valuable NBA team. There are only three NBA teams in the top 20 most valuable sports organizations in the world, with the NFL having eight. There just seems to be more money in the NFL than in the NBA. Approximately $200 million more is generated by the NFL in sponsorship revenue.

In addition to securing $2.6 billion in TV rights, the NBA hopes to see a significant increase in TV rights very soon. In contrast, earlier this year, the NFL unveiled a brand new 11 year deal with CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, and Amazon worth $113B over the course of the deal, which would net the NFL $10.27B annually, nearly four times more than the NBA does today.

Viewership for the NFL also leads to that of the NBA, in fact, the NFL dominates the NBA in viewership. On average, 15.4 million people will tune into NFL regular-season games in 2020. The last NBA game to attract higher than 15.4 million viewers occurred during the 2019 finals, with games six and seven averaging 18.3 million viewers. A comparable story can be found between the NBA finals and the Superbowl. A record 96.4 million viewers tuned in to watch Super Bowl LV. It may be unfair to compare the two since the Superbowl is a much bigger event than any individual game in the NBA finals. A more equitable comparison would be to compare the Super Bowl’s overall viewership with that of the NBA finals. As you add all of the viewers up, the margins become smaller, but the 2021 Finals still drew fewer viewers than the Superbowl. Around 59 million people watched the game, giving the Superbowl a large advantage.

Why is the NFL bigger than the NBA?

In comparison to the NBA, the NFL was formed in 1920, making it a much more historic league. It’s not that NFL teams are better than NBA teams; rather, NBA teams are at a disadvantage because American Football is the sport of choice for 37% of Americans compared to only 11% for basketball. In my opinion, this is a serious disadvantage. As a result, you will find the NBA much less popular since it isn’t as old as the NFL. Additionally, the NBA is unable to change the opinion of Americans on basketball, so they may need to prove that they are better than the NFL beyond their ability to win championships.

What are the chances of the NBA catching up to the NFL?

In fact, the NBA is catching up with the NFL in terms of popularity. The NBA promotes its games throughout the world, most notably in China. There is an NBA pre-season schedule that includes games in China and London. It has an advantage in the global market because basketball is a much more international sport and includes athletes from countries like Australia, France, and Nigeria. In addition, some poor decisions by the NFL are allowing the NBA to catch up. There are inherent risks associated with the game, and safety measures are evolving to increase player safety. Increasingly more parents are allowing their children to play basketball rather than football because basketball is much less likely to cause injuries.

In terms of sheer numbers, the NFL surely beats the NBA. In the meantime, the NFL’s throne may come under some pressure as the NBA shows no signs of slowing down.