Soccer leads Hong Kong, ahead of Basketball and Badminton. Ranking of 12 sports.
This page ranks the sports of Hong Kong by the evidence behind each one, because for Hong Kong no single consistent, comparable figure (membership count, license count, or one participation survey covering all sports) could be confirmed within this run, so no quantified basis is used and each rank is instead backed by a reasoned evidence statement. The figures come from Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China.
Soccer is on top, followed by Basketball and Badminton. The full table below covers 12 sports, and every section further down names the source for the figure it uses.
The Most Popular Sports in Hong Kong
The table counts evidence, not people who say they like a sport. It is the figure that is published the same way for every sport in the list, which is what makes the rows comparable. The reference year is 2026.
| # | Sport | Basis for the placing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soccer | The Hong Kong Football Association, founded in 1914, is the territory’s oldest sport governing body and runs the top flight Hong Kong Premier League together with a full youth and |
| 2 | Basketball | Basketball is recognized as a full member sport under the Hong Kong Olympic Committee structure and is played on the outdoor courts attached to most public housing estates. |
| 3 | Badminton | Badminton has produced Hong Kong’s most consistent individual Olympic qualifiers over the past decade, reflecting a wide organized base of club and school play. |
| 4 | Table tennis | Table tennis is a recognized full member sport of the Hong Kong Olympic Committee and Hong Kong has fielded teams at every Summer Olympics since 1988, when the sport was introduced |
| 5 | Rugby | The Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens returns to Kai Tak Stadium on 9 to 11 April 2027, once again opening the HSBC SVNS World Championship. |
| 6 | Horse racing | The Hong Kong Jockey Club is the territory’s largest single sports and betting operator, running weekly race meetings at Happy Valley and Sha Tin racecourses throughout the season. |
| 7 | Swimming | Siobhan Haughey won two silver medals for Hong Kong at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in the women’s 200m and 100m freestyle, the territory’s first Olympic medals in swimming. |
| 8 | Cricket | Cricket has a continuous organized history in Hong Kong dating back to the colonial era, and the men’s team has repeatedly qualified for International Cricket Council global qualif |
| 9 | Dragon boat racing | Hong Kong is credited with formalizing dragon boat racing into a modern international competitive sport, after the Hong Kong Tourist Association organized the first international d |
| 10 | Fencing | Cheung Ka Long won Hong Kong’s first ever Olympic gold medal, in the men’s individual foil at the Tokyo 2020 Games, and won a second foil gold at the Paris 2024 Games. |
| 11 | Squash | Hong Kong squash players have repeatedly reached the top ranks of the Professional Squash Association world tour and won medals at the Asian Games. |
| 12 | Cycling | Lee Wai-sze won bronze in the women’s keirin at the Rio 2016 Olympics, becoming Hong Kong’s first female Olympic medalist, and has since won multiple track cycling world titles. |
Most Played and Most Watched Are Not the Same Sport
Membership and license numbers tell you what people do. Audience figures tell you what they watch, and the two lists rarely have the same sport on top.
| Sport | Figure | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Rugby (Hong Kong Sevens) | 2027 | The Hong Kong Sevens is played at Kai Tak Stadium and opens the HSBC SVNS World Championship season each year. |
| Horse racing | 2026 | Hong Kong Jockey Club race meetings at Happy Valley and Sha Tin run on a weekly schedule throughout the racing season and are the territory’s most attended recurring sporting events. |
Is There a National Sport of Hong Kong?
Hong Kong has no national sport laid down by law or by government decision. No sport is designated as Hong Kong’s national sport by law or government decree.
- Dragon boat racing. Dragon boat racing is the sport most closely identified with Hong Kong internationally because the territory is credited with turning it into a modern competitive sport.
- Soccer. Soccer is the de facto most widely followed team sport in Hong Kong given its century old organized structure and large youth participation.
Sports That Were Invented in Hong Kong
- Dragon boat racing. The modern international sport of dragon boat racing was formalized in Hong Kong in 1976.
#1 Soccer
- Governing body: Hong Kong Football Association
- Top national league: Hong Kong Premier League
- Best known athlete: Chan Wai Ho. Chan Wai Ho has captained the Hong Kong national football team through more than a decade of international matches, including the run to the King’s Cup final in Thailand in 2015
Soccer is organized in Hong Kong through school leagues, district clubs, and the professional Hong Kong Premier League, run under the Hong Kong Football Association. The association is more than a century old, giving the sport the deepest organized history of any team sport in the territory.
The national team has drawn large local followings for its matches against mainland China and other regional sides. Long serving players such as team captain Chan Wai Ho have kept the sport visible at the international level even without full time professional status for most squad members.
Latest Posts about Soccer
#2 Basketball
- Governing body: Hong Kong, China Basketball Association
- Top national league: Hong Kong Basketball League
Basketball is one of the most accessible sports in Hong Kong because courts are built into almost every public housing estate and school campus, so informal play does not require club membership.
Organized competition runs through school leagues into the semi professional Hong Kong Basketball League, and the sport draws consistent youth participation across the territory’s districts.
Latest Posts about Basketball
#3 Badminton
- Governing body: Hong Kong Badminton Association
- Best known athlete: Angus Ng Ka-long. Angus Ng Ka-long became the first Hong Kong men’s singles player to break into the world’s top ten and reached the world number three ranking, competing at the Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024 Olympics
Badminton is played widely in Hong Kong’s indoor sports centres, and the sport benefits from year round court availability that outdoor team sports do not have in the dense urban environment.
Angus Ng Ka-long’s run to the world’s top ranks raised the sport’s local profile, and his repeated Olympic qualification has kept badminton in the local sports conversation each Games cycle.
Latest Posts about Badminton
#4 Table tennis
- Governing body: Hong Kong Table Tennis Association
Table tennis has a long organized presence in Hong Kong, with club and school competitions feeding a national team that has appeared at every Olympic Games since the sport joined the program in 1988.
Low equipment cost and space requirements make it common in schools and community centres, keeping grassroots participation steady across age groups.
Latest Posts about Table Tennis
#5 Rugby
- Governing body: Hong Kong Rugby Union
- Top national league: Hong Kong Premiership
Rugby in Hong Kong is built almost entirely around the sevens format, and the annual Hong Kong Sevens tournament is the sport’s single biggest driver of local interest.
The event opens the HSBC SVNS World Championship season and is hosted at Kai Tak Stadium, giving the sport a scale of local and international attention that its modest domestic playing base would not otherwise generate.
Latest Posts about Rugby
#6 Horse racing
- Governing body: Hong Kong Jockey Club
Horse racing occupies a distinct place in Hong Kong sporting life because it is run by a single body, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, that also funds a large share of the territory’s other sport and community programs.
Weekly meetings at Happy Valley and Sha Tin draw in person crowds and a much larger betting audience, making racing one of the most consistently attended sporting events in Hong Kong.
Latest Posts about Horse Racing
#7 Swimming
- Governing body: Hong Kong China Swimming Association
- Best known athlete: Siobhan Haughey. Siobhan Haughey won Hong Kong’s first ever Olympic swimming medals, taking silver in both the 200m and 100m freestyle at the Tokyo 2020 Games, and has since added further global podium finishes
Swimming has a long standing school and club structure in Hong Kong, with public and school pools supporting a steady base of competitive swimmers.
Siobhan Haughey’s two silver medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were the territory’s first Olympic medals in the sport and produced a marked rise in public attention to swimming afterward.
Latest Posts about Swimming
#8 Cricket
- Governing body: Hong Kong Cricket Association
Cricket’s organized presence in Hong Kong dates back to the nineteenth century, and the sport kept a dedicated following through club competitions long after most of the rest of the region moved away from it.
The men’s national team has repeatedly reached global qualifying events for International Cricket Council tournaments, which has kept the sport visible well beyond its expatriate origins.
#9 Dragon boat racing
- Governing body: Hong Kong China Dragon Boat Association
Dragon boat racing sits between tradition and organized sport in Hong Kong, rooted in the older Tuen Ng festival custom but run today as a structured competitive calendar with club training year round.
The Hong Kong Tourist Association’s 1976 international races in the harbour are widely credited with turning the traditional festival paddling into the standardized international sport now contested worldwide.
#10 Fencing
- Governing body: Hong Kong, China Fencing Association
- Best known athlete: Cheung Ka Long. Cheung Ka Long delivered Hong Kong’s first Olympic gold medal in the territory’s history, winning the men’s individual foil at Tokyo 2020, then repeated the win at Paris 2024
Fencing had a comparatively small following in Hong Kong before Cheung Ka Long’s Tokyo 2020 gold medal, which was the territory’s first Olympic gold in any sport.
The win, repeated at the Paris 2024 Games, brought a sharp rise in interest and enrollment in fencing clubs across Hong Kong in the years that followed.
Latest Posts about Fencing
#11 Squash
- Governing body: Squash Association of Hong Kong, China
Squash has a smaller playing base in Hong Kong than sports like football or basketball, but a well funded elite program has produced players who compete regularly on the world professional tour.
Success at Asian level events has helped keep squash visible domestically even though facilities are concentrated in private clubs rather than public courts.
Latest Posts about Squash
#12 Cycling
- Governing body: Cycling Association of Hong Kong, China
- Best known athlete: Lee Wai-sze. Lee Wai-sze, known as Sarah Lee, became Hong Kong’s first female Olympic medalist by winning bronze in the keirin at the Rio 2016 Olympics and has won multiple world championship titles in the event since
Track cycling is the strongest competitive branch of the sport in Hong Kong, supported by the velodrome built as part of the territory’s elite sport program.
Lee Wai-sze’s Rio 2016 bronze medal and repeated world championship keirin titles have made track cycling one of the sports most associated with Hong Kong on the international stage.
Latest Posts about Cycling
Sources
- Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China
- Hong Kong Football Association
- Hong Kong Sevens
- Hong Kong Jockey Club
- International Olympic Committee
- Hong Kong Tourism Board
- Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China
Figures on this page come from national federations and statistics offices and are only as current as their latest published report. Last reviewed: August 2026.
FAQ
What is the national sport of Hong Kong?
Hong Kong has no sport designated as a national sport by law or government decree. Dragon boat racing is the sport most closely identified with the territory internationally, since Hong Kong is credited with turning it into a modern competitive sport in 1976. Soccer is the most widely organized team sport, run by the Hong Kong Football Association since 1914.
What are Hong Kong’s traditional sports?
Dragon boat racing is the clearest traditional sport tied to Hong Kong, rooted in the Tuen Ng festival and turned into a modern international competition after the Hong Kong Tourist Association organized the first international races in 1976. Horse racing at Happy Valley and Sha Tin, run by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, also has a long standing place in local sporting tradition.
Is rugby popular in Hong Kong?
Rugby’s popularity in Hong Kong centers on the sevens format rather than a large domestic playing base. The annual Hong Kong Sevens, hosted at Kai Tak Stadium and opening the HSBC SVNS World Championship season, is the sport’s main driver of local and international attention.
What is the most popular sport in Hong Kong?
Soccer has the deepest organized base of any sport in Hong Kong, run by the Hong Kong Football Association since 1914 through the Hong Kong Premier League and a full school and youth structure. Basketball is also widely played because courts are built into most public housing estates.
What sport is Hong Kong famous for internationally?
Hong Kong is internationally known for the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament, hosted at Kai Tak Stadium as the opening event of the HSBC SVNS World Championship season. It is also known for horse racing through the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and for producing Olympic champions such as fencer Cheung Ka Long, Hong Kong’s first ever Olympic gold medalist.
