Young Consumers' Sports Viewing Rises Sharply

Young consumers are watching more sports than ever -- live and non-live sports content on TV and other devices -- according to Hub Entertainment Research.

This growth is attributable to social media and digital media creators.

“Fandom is diffused across multiple kinds of media and content,” says Jon Giegengack, principal at Hub. “It shows up as a YouTube stream, a group chat during the game, [and] watching live stats on social media while the game is on.”

Viewers 13-17 are watching 50% more sports on TV than a year ago -- with 17% watching “much more” and 32% watching “somewhat more.”

Looking more broadly, 45% of fans 35 and younger now get "more" or "all" of their "non-live" sports content from social media, while sports fans ages 55 and up get only 10% from social media.

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Multitasking is also a major reason for the increase in viewing all sports content. Sixty-two percent of fans ages 13-34 use social media via their mobile devices during a live game, compared tod33% for those ages 55-74.

Giegengack says sports will need to adjust and expand overall related content to other platforms to keep those young sports fans. “The industry is built to reach the fan who plans[for example] their Sunday around kickoff. Now they need to adapt to fans that watch the game on TV and spend the rest of the week following it everywhere else.”

Hub’s research is based on a survey of 3,814 U.S. sports fans ages 13-74, conducted in July 2026.

1 comment about "Young Consumers' Sports Viewing Rises Sharply".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 11, 2026 at 3:48 p.m.

    Wayne, this kind of research doesn't necessarily support the statement that young consumers are watching sports more than ever before. The average consumer----young or old--- in the glory days of linear TV--before streaming--spent considerably more time than now  with sports as well as most other  program genres. Thanks to rating fragmentation everything is down--but TV entetainment fare has suffered the greatest declines while sports and cable news have seen smaller losses. 

    About those multitasking claims, if all of them applied to a single game,  the viewer must not be very engaged or attentive to what's transpiring on the screen. As for multitasking causing a young person to "watch" more sports similar studies for other genres of content often show the same kinds of findings--very inflated claims that are not indicative of the actual incidence of the activity. 

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