America's Favorite Sports: A Level Playing Field

Today, the Golden State Warriors will face the Boston Celtics in the first game of this year's NBA finals. According to bookies around the country, the odds of the team led by Steph Curry and Klay Thompson winning the fourth title in franchise history and the first after its loss to the Toronto Raptors in 2019 are high. The Celtics team built around its two star players Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, on the other hand, is viewed as the clear underdog despite its excellent defensive capabilities. Whether the Warriors or the Celtics will take home the title, around half of the sports fans in the United States, independent of their financial backgrounds, are likely to follow the finals in some way or another.

As our chart based on data from our Statista Global Consumer Survey shows, around 56 percent of U.S. sports enthusiasts claim to follow basketball leagues like the NBA. American football, on the other hand, remains the United States' favorite sport, with 76 to 79 percent of sports fans being engaged with the NFL from their couches or stadium seats.

Interestingly, the only real class difference when it comes to the four classic U.S. sports American football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey is apparent in the latter. The NFL seems to be most interesting to the upper and middle class, with only 20 percent of participants from the low-income bracket being interested in the sport.

Last year's finals participants faced considerable hurdles in the current post-season. While the 2020-2021 champions, the Milwaukee Bucks, were defeated by the Celtics in a hard-fought conference finals match-up, the clear-cut favorites in the Western Conference and the team with the highest win percentage in the league, the Phoenix Suns, were bested by the Dallas Mavericks in the conference semi-finals.

Although they've been absent from the finals for the last 12 years, the Boston Celtics have a rich tradition when it comes to finals participation. Since 1947, Boston competed for the title 22 times and won 17 times, with only the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers participating in more finals match-ups since the inception of the NBA.