Sports brings families together, with vast majority of fans consuming sports with others, new research shows

A new study showed that not only are most Americans sports fans, but the majority believe it keeps them close with their family.

Recent research by SiriusXM and Group M with the help of Edison Research showed how much Americans believe in sharing the joy of sports with friends and loved ones.

Presented by SiriusXM researchers and their sales team, the data showed that more than two-thirds of Americans over the age of 13 identify as sports fans. That number accumulated to 186 million people.

Sports was also connected to strong family ties in the data, with 68% of fans stating that sports brings their family closer together.

'The idea that sports is more than just a game is at the core of what drives fandom.'

While it's hard to know whether being with family makes a sports fan more emotional than usual, nearly 1-in-4 fans admitted that they had cried because of the outcome of the game they were watching or listening to.

"This is shocking and amazing news as it gives me a reason to force my daughter to listen to sports while on the way to watch Scottie Scheffler hit a golf ball," sports broadcaster Gary Sheffield Jr. told Blaze News.

The nature of the study also included a heavy focus on the consumption of audio broadcasts. There was no change in terms of the comradery of listenership in that data.

According to the Sports Audio Report, a vast majority of audio listeners said they listen at least some of the time with other people, whether it was through podcasts or radio. Those who listened to podcasts or satellite radio were even more likely to "co-listen."

Overall, 64% of sports fans said they frequently or occasionally listen to sports via audio broadcasts.

Of course, the younger generations are listening in different ways. The report showed that Gen Z and Millennials closely follow the off-the-field lives of their favorite athletes, while podcast listening in sports has almost doubled since 2018.

There exists a 3:1 ratio of podcast listening versus radio listenership for those aged 13-34.

There's also great news for audio programmers in the data, as well. For 40% of those surveyed, they said there weren't enough audio programs that follow the sports they care about, and another 40% said they wanted to hear different perspectives. Couple that with the fact that over half of sports fans revealed that they have purchased a product or service they heard about on ads during an audio broadcast.

According to Gabriel Soto, senior director of research at Edison Research, the appeal of sports is the very idea that sports is more than a game.

"The idea that sports is more than just a game is at the core of what drives fandom, audio consumption, and the benefits advertisers receive from sports audio," Soto explained.

"Family, community, and emotion drive this passion unlike any other," the executive added.

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