NFL vs. MLB vs. NBA vs. NHL
Written by Ryan Carrigg (contact - e-mail) -- January 3rd, 2007 |
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For much of America, present company included, each season has a sport associated with it. Spring and summer mean baseball games, hot dog in one hand and a cold beer in the other. In the fall, Sunday is a day devoted to NFL football games, eating a bowl of chili and sipping on a cold beer. And in the winter months basketball fans and hockey fans are in heaven (with some nachos and cold beers).
Not surprisingly, each major sport’s online property experiences a seasonal spike. The chart below illustrates the yearly peaks and valleys of visitors to NFL.com, MLB.com, NBA.com, and NHL.com.
Both NFL.com and MLB.com have become the front runners in attracting online enthusiasts. The similarities between the two sites’ visitation trends should come as no surprise as there is a great deal of overlap in the fan base of the two sports. Spring Training begins just as Superbowl memories begin to fade, and football kicks in right around the time the playoff contenders are being decided in baseball. The fans follow the cycles accordingly.
By contrast, the NBA, marred with fights and player disobedience, has experienced a decline in online interest. In 2001 NBA.com’s peak monthly unique visitor count rivaled that of NFL.com and MLB.com. But by 2006, the NBA’s high-water mark was just over 5 million unique visitors — a fraction of the peaks of 8.5 million and 9.2 million people to NFL.com and MLB.com respectively.
Hockey is the clear bottom dweller in the category, reflecting the NHL’s difficulties as of late. As if the sport’s waning popularity in the US wasn’t enough of a disadvantage, the lockout that canceled the 2004/2005 season appears to have solidified the league’s online property’s position in the rear of the pack.
For whatever reason, in America we love football and baseball. Some people follow the NBA and a select group of diehards hold interest in the NHL. Why is it that football and baseball have become a part of American culture while the other sports have been left by the wayside? Comments welcome.
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January 3rd, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Far more people watch NFL games on TV than MLB games so it’s not just the sports’ general popularity that explains unique visitors. If I were to guess, I would say baseball fans are more into statistics than American football fans, so even though baseball on the whole is less popular, the behavior of the sports’ respective fans makes them look about even.
There’s no denying the NBA has gone down in popularity, but I wouldn’t blame “disobedience” since NFL players get into more trouble. I blame the absence of Michael Jordan or some Michael Jordan analogue. Seriously, Steve Nash is — ostensibly — the league’s best player, and he’s fun to watch, but he’s no Jordan.
Another possibility is that MLB.com provides better features than the others. In the same vein, I wonder how change in traffic to these sites compares to that ESPN, FOX Sports, and CBS Sportsline’s league-specific sites.
January 3rd, 2007 at 9:58 pm
This article would not be posted in a world with editors or people who know anything about sports. There are many informative and hilarious websites devoted to basketball, and more start every year for each team — but you don’t know that, and you negate them all by tying everything to whether or not people go to the Big Official Website. The truth is that NBA.com is just horrible, a boring site that no one wants to visit. Please do not extrapolate from one tiny set of data into what you think is some kind of great insight but turns out to be just some of your half-baked (and curiously biased) assumptions. No NBA team has had eight different players arrested in one season, and no NBA player raked another player’s face with his cleat this year — doesn’t this tear down your whole “theory”?
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Huh? Mchardwood, you sure about that?
Think about it… MBL has 162 game season (I think).. NBA is closer to 80… NFL is 16… However, NFL has the strongest fantasy following and is considered America’s sport (yes, it has surpassed the MLB as America’s past time). Is it so crazy to think the MLB with a season twice as intense as any other season will attract the most web interest? Is is also crazy to think America’s love affair with football would propel it past a struggling NBA?
I agree that official league sites only capture a sample of the overall sports interest in a site, but how could discredit them as strong proxies.
Crazy talk.
January 4th, 2007 at 7:08 am
Baseball and football are followed rather differently. Football is certainly the one that is watched more, but I think there are as many people who follow baseball. They just don’t watch every game, or even most games. It’s hard to watch 162 games that happen at various times on various days as opposed to 16 that happen on the same day (and a day off from work for most people) each week, and individual games matter much more in football.
I have indeed noticed a decline in interest among those in my circle in the NBA, which may or may not reflect a larger decline. It may also be that NBA fans just don’t use the internet as much, or that they just don’t have as much reason to visit the official site. I doubt any of the official sites can claim to be the fan favorite. For instance, I go to MLB.com a lot, but there are many better sites for baseball out there, and a lot of people prefer to go to those instead.
I would like to see the numbers for ESPN, as someone else mentioned, or some other place where the differences can’t be attributed simply to different site quality.
January 5th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
It is no surprise that NBA is declining in America as more effort as been made to get it going more international. David Stern has been growing its international market (and quite successfully); I don’t see how NFL and NHL can match that.
January 17th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
「バース、クロマテ、サッダーム！」…
WBS日本,東京電：
前号で軽くお伝えした「サダム・フセイン追悼新年会 〜1日限定ランディ・バース党〜」。
今大会は日本、いや全世界でのサダム・フセインの不人気っぷりを如実に示…
July 10th, 2007 at 11:52 am
NBA IS THE GREATEST SPORT TO WATCH. ITS BECAUSE THE GREATEST PLAYER OF ALL TIME PLAYED IN THE NBA. THE NEXT IS BASEBALL, MJ PLAYED IT TOO, BUT NOT SO LONG, THATS WHY ITS NO.2 . FOOTBALL AND HOCKEY? IS THERE FOOTBALL ANF HOCKEY? I NEVER HEARED THAT TWO. SO NBA SAY THANKS TO HIS AIRNESS CUS MJ LOVES ALOT AT BASKETBALL, THATS WHY HE’S BACK 2 TIMES, AND 2 THREE PEAT
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August 13th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
^
Seriously, how can a sport actually have “the greatest/best player?” How can one compare MJ to Vince Young? They’re both excellent players but they’re so different.
Anyways, I think that the NFL has everything a sport should have…Strategy, guts, brains, strength, speed, and heart. This is probably the reason why so many Americans watch the NFL (Canadians too, along with Europeans, Asians, etc). Moreover guys like Steve Smith, Chad Johnson, Reggie Bush, etc are so entertaining! The MLB has the thrill of homeruns (Balls flying toward the audience at 92 miles an hour… If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is!). But the players don’t move much (in comparison to American football, basketball, and hockey). Basketball is very fun to watch - it is very fast and competitive. On average, it takes 20 seconds for a player to score a goal in the NBA. However the NBA is missing “la creme de la creme” players. Steve Nash is very good, but can he make it to the “Hall of Fame stage”? The NHL, although it can have a lot of action, can be a drudge. Watching the NHL is kind of like watching MLS (soccer) or FIFA (world football) or some other similar league. Sometimes it may take a hockey player 5 minutes to score a goal, but sometimes it may take the player 19 minutes to score a goal. IN MY VIEW (AND ONLY IN MY VIEW), ice hockey is a repetition of skating, body-checking, making shot attempts, followed by more skating.
Note that I do not have anything against people who have different sports preferences. Everybody is entitled to an opinion and I respect that.
September 25th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
MLB is so boring. They need to make foul balls more interesting.
October 8th, 2007 at 5:02 am
NFL
I believe, thats only your oppinion
December 27th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
It is extremely hard to compare these great organizations. These are all different sports for a reason. If we were able to compare them accurately, then they would be too close to the same and the fan base would deminish. Try comparing an NHL fan and an NBA fan. Most hockey fans are into the checking, teeth loosing, bleeding type of sport. NBA fans like the bling bling, shake’n'bakes, and high flying dunks. In my opinion, and only my opinion these four organizations, NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB are all great organizations and they reach all different fan bases.
April 25th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
do yo think any where in the world except north america watch NFL, oh i should lough at you
hey i can asure that 80% of the world population never know what NFL is and still 60% never know
whether there is any sport like gridron.believe me if you tell any one from europe,asia or africa to tell what does NFL mean they will never solve it rather try as national female lesbos , nation full locals or etc..
and if even some got it like national football league they would not assume it is the gridrin type of
football rather the other football(played in every part of the world).
nba of course is a little bit known
the main problem with you is that you trust american media which are doing bussnes by cheating.
sorry any way but if you want to know the truth you got take travels to europe or asia or africa
then you would know how much NFL is almost unknown outside north america .
October 30th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Give me the fastest team sport on the planet and the most honest. NHL. Basketball is a good watch as well, I’m just not into hip hop culture.
The NFL and MLB are just boring and are based on Hype or sports wagering.
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