Soccer leads South Africa in 2019, ahead of Rugby union and Cricket. Ranking of 9 sports.
This page ranks the sports of South Africa by the evidence behind each one, because no single registered-member, license, or population-share figure could be confirmed through a directly fetchable and quotable primary source for enough South African sports to build one uniform ranking metric, so each entry below carries its own quoted evidence (federation membership, event entries, or audience figures) instead of a shared number.
Soccer is on top, followed by Rugby union and Cricket. The full table below covers 9 sports, and every section further down names the source for the figure it uses.
The Most Popular Sports in South Africa
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.
| # | Sport | Basis for the placing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soccer | MYSAFA has passed the 250 000 registered player mark … Total Registrations to Date: 251 116 |
| 2 | Rugby union | The final match of the RWC 2023 attracted a staggering 10.9 million unique home-based live viewers across four linear TV channels. |
| 3 | Cricket | Nielsen data shows that total unique viewership climbed from 1.6 million in 2024 to 2.37 million in 2025. Viewership for the 2025 final reached 688,618. |
| 4 | Netball | close to a million individuals report attending a netball match |
| 5 | Distance running | 24,173 Comrades 2025 entries … 18,207 finishers |
| 6 | Cycling | close to 30,000 cyclists will clip in, take a deep breath and set off to tackle one of the world’s most scenic and celebrated bike races |
| 7 | Golf | Total affiliated golfers 145 635 |
| 8 | Lawn bowls | Today Bowls South Africa has over 23 000 registered members, and almost 513 clubs. |
| 9 | Open water swimming | The most participants in an open water race is 13,755 and was achieved at the 2009 Midmar Mile at Midmar Dam, Howick, near Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, from 7-8 February 2009. |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Soccer | 2024 | Eighty20’s analysis of the 2024 MAPS survey found soccer had the largest reported live audience of any sport in South Africa. |
| Rugby union | 10.9 million | The 2023 Rugby World Cup final drew the largest confirmed home television audience of any single sporting broadcast checked for this article. |
| Cricket | 2.37 million | The domestic SA20 Twenty20 league grew its total television audience by close to half a million viewers between its 2024 and 2025 seasons. |
Is There a National Sport of South Africa?
South Africa has no national sport laid down by law or by government decision. South Africa’s National Sport and Recreation Act of 1998 does not name any sport as a legally designated national sport; it only sets up structures for funding, coordinating, and regulating sport and recreation federations in general.
- Rugby union. Rugby is widely treated as South Africa’s de facto national sport because of the Springboks’ global success and the record home audience for the 2023 Rugby World Cup final.
- Soccer. Soccer is treated as South Africa’s other de facto national sport because it draws the widest reported interest and the largest live match attendance of any sport surveyed.
Sports That Were Invented in South Africa
- Jukskei. Jukskei is a throwing game that developed among South African transport riders from the ox wagon yoke pin and is regarded as a sport that originated in South Africa.
#1 Soccer
- Governing body: South African Football Association (SAFA)
- Top national league: DStv Premiership
SAFA’s own MYSAFA registration system had recorded 251,116 registered players by 2019, the largest confirmed player base of any federation checked for this article. Independent survey work by the analytics firm Eighty20, based on the MRF’s MAPS study, also placed soccer as the sport with the widest reported interest and the highest live match attendance in the country.
Eighty20 reported that more than 5 million people attended a live soccer match in the twelve months before the 2024 MAPS survey, a scale no other sport in this ranking matched. That combination of a large registered playing base and the biggest reported live audience is why soccer leads this list.
Latest Posts about Soccer
#2 Rugby union
- Governing body: South African Rugby Union (SA Rugby)
- Top national league: United Rugby Championship / Currie Cup
The 2023 Rugby World Cup final, won by the Springboks, drew 10.9 million unique home based live viewers inside South Africa across four linear television channels, according to Nielsen Sports SA data reported in 2023. That is a home audience share reached by very few single sporting broadcasts in the country.
This scale of audience for a national team event places rugby among the most watched sports in South Africa, even though a comparable nationwide registered player count could not be confirmed through a source that could be directly verified for this article.
Latest Posts about Rugby
#3 Cricket
- Governing body: Cricket South Africa (CSA)
- Top national league: SA20
The domestic SA20 Twenty20 league grew its total unique television viewership from 1.6 million in 2024 to 2.37 million in 2025, according to Nielsen data published by SuperSport. The 2025 final alone reached 688,618 viewers on SuperSport.
That year on year growth points to cricket building a broadcast audience close behind soccer and rugby, even though CSA does not publish a directly verifiable total registered player count comparable to the other federations checked here.
#4 Netball
- Governing body: Netball South Africa
- Top national league: Telkom Netball League
Eighty20’s analysis of the 2024 MAPS survey found that close to a million people reported attending a live netball match, a scale of live attendance behind only soccer among the sports with a confirmed attendance figure. The same analysis noted that netball had entered the top ranked sports by interest, alongside soccer.
Netball’s growth is organized around the Telkom Netball League, the sport’s premier domestic competition, but a nationwide registered player total from Netball South Africa could not be confirmed through a directly fetchable source for this article.
#5 Distance running
- Governing body: Comrades Marathon Association
The 2025 Comrades Marathon, the country’s best known ultramarathon between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, drew 24,173 entries and produced 18,207 official finishers, among the largest fields in the race’s history according to a field-by-field breakdown published after the event.
That single event puts more people through an organized road race finish line each year than most federation membership rolls checked for this article, which is why distance running is included in this ranking on its own.
#6 Cycling
- Governing body: Cycling South Africa
The Cape Town Cycle Tour, one of the world’s largest timed cycling events, brought together close to 30,000 riders in 2025 according to Time Out Cape Town’s event coverage. The race is run on closed public roads around the Cape Peninsula each March.
A single mass participation event of that size again outstrips the nationwide registered membership figures that could be confirmed for most other federations in this research, which is why cycling is ranked on event participation rather than a club membership count.
Latest Posts about Cycling
#7 Golf
- Governing body: Golf South Africa (GolfRSA)
- Top national league: Sunshine Tour
Golf South Africa reported 145,635 total affiliated golfers across its provincial unions in 2025 according to figures published on the GolfRSA website. That is the largest club-based federation membership figure that could be confirmed for this article.
Latest Posts about Golf
#8 Lawn bowls
- Governing body: Bowls South Africa
Bowls South Africa states on its own website that the federation has over 23,000 registered members across almost 513 clubs, without giving a specific year for that count. It is one of the few federations checked for this article with a clearly stated, directly fetchable membership figure.
That places lawn bowls behind the larger federations and mass participation events in this ranking, but ahead of several other sports for which no comparable registered figure could be confirmed at all.
#9 Open water swimming
- Governing body: aQuelle Midmar Mile
The Midmar Mile, held each February at Midmar Dam near Pietermaritzburg, set the Guinness World Record for the largest open water swimming race with 13,755 participants across its 2009 edition. It remains the reference event for organized open water swimming participation in South Africa.
Sources
- South African Football Association (SAFA), MYSAFA news
- Bizcommunity, citing Nielsen Sports SA and BRC TAMS data
- SuperSport, citing Nielsen data
- Eighty20 (analysis of the MRF MAPS survey)
- The Running Mann (Comrades 2025 Full Field Stats)
- Time Out Cape Town
- Golf South Africa (GolfRSA)
- Bowls South Africa
- Guinness World Records
- South African Government, National Sport and Recreation Act 110 of 1998
- Jukskei South Africa (SAJR)
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 South Africa’s national sport?
South Africa has no legally designated national sport under the National Sport and Recreation Act of 1998. Rugby union and soccer are both treated as de facto national sports, rugby because the 2023 Rugby World Cup final drew 10.9 million home viewers in South Africa, and soccer because it draws the country’s largest reported live match attendance, with over 5 million people reporting attendance at a live match in the year covered by the 2024 MAPS survey.
What are the most popular sports in South Africa?
Based on the available evidence, soccer, rugby union, cricket, and netball are the most followed sports in South Africa. Soccer’s SAFA registered 251,116 players through MYSAFA and drew over 5 million live match attendees in the year covered by the 2024 MAPS survey. Rugby’s 2023 World Cup final drew 10.9 million home viewers, cricket’s SA20 league grew to 2.37 million television viewers in 2025, and netball drew close to a million reported live attendees.
What sports is mostly played in South Africa?
Soccer has the largest confirmed organized player base, with 251,116 players registered through SAFA’s MYSAFA system. Beyond team sports, mass participation events are also widely taken part in, including the Comrades Marathon, which had 24,173 entries and 18,207 finishers in 2025, and the Cape Town Cycle Tour, which drew close to 30,000 riders in 2025.
What is a popular sport in South Africa besides soccer, rugby, and cricket?
Netball is widely followed, with close to a million people reporting attendance at a live match in the 2024 MAPS survey. Golf also has a large organized base, with Golf South Africa reporting 145,635 affiliated golfers in 2025, and lawn bowls counts over 23,000 registered members through Bowls South Africa.
List of South African sports and where they came from.
The sports with confirmed evidence in this research are soccer, rugby union, cricket, netball, distance running, cycling, golf, lawn bowls, and open water swimming. Jukskei is the one sport confirmed to have originated in South Africa, developed by transport riders from the ox wagon yoke pin, with roots said to date back to 1734 and organized under the South African Jukskei Association from 1940.
