These are the 5 most popular women’s sports in the United States. If you don’t play any, be sure to give one of these a try!

Soccer

Women’s soccer has been rapidly increasing in popularity over the years. According to Business Insider, in 1971 there were only 700 female high school soccer players, and by 2014 that number grew to 376,000 female players. Lastly, we can’t forget to mention that the U.S. women’s soccer team has been ranked No. 1 in the world since 2015.

Tennis

The powerful sister duo, Serena and Venus Williams are inspirations to all women who love tennis. Tennis is one of the few professional sports in which women gained fame and popularity equal or greater to their male counter parts. GoodSport also took a closer look at how tennis is leading the way in closing the gender pay gap, here.

Mixed Martial Arts

MMA is a male and female dominated sport around the world, however women’s MMA is gaining much more popularity in the U.S. The first female MMA fight held in the U.S was in 1997, since then MMA has grown tremendously for women. We can thank the popular female fighters Ronda Rousey and Amanda Nunes for the growing awareness of women in mixed martial arts.

Basketball

The WNBA was formed in 1996 with only 8 teams and now has grown to a total of 18 teams. Women’s basketball has also gained great popularity at the collegiate level, receiving significant national coverage. In 2019, the NCAA women’s college basketball tournament had an increase of 22,000 fans compared to 2018. The 2019 NCAA women’s tournament averaged a little more than 274,000 fans in attendance.

Pickleball

You may be asking yourself… what on earth is pickleball? Well luckily GoodSport has already answered all your questions on pickleball. Most countries have never heard of this obscure sport, but in the U.S. pickleball is quickly growing in popularity.