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Tops of Sports

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If you're relying on last year’s audience models, you might be leaving an opportunity on the table.

The insights you’ll find in Nielsen’s Tops of Sports: Media trends shaping sports marketing for 2026 show that today’s fans are evolving fast and so are your highest-growth customer segments.

The New Baseball Demographics

Unlock new value within a sport you already know when you capitalize on baseball’s +200% spike in Hispanic viewership and the +113% rise in Asian American audiences.

The NWSL Opportunity

Women’s sports have evolved into a mainstream powerhouse. The NWSL added 8.5 million fans this year alone—and with 64% of them being men, it represents a powerful new channel to engage your core audience at scale.

The Sponsor-Ready Fan

Capture the momentum before the World Cup. With 37% of the U.S. already leaning into soccer, you can connect early with a fanbase that is proven to be highly loyal and more likely to buy from sponsors.

The Tops of Sports report provides a clear, data-backed view of where fan attention is shifting and how to align investment with audiences that are actually growing.

Download the report