Baseball leads Taiwan, ahead of Basketball and Badminton. Ranking of 15 sports.
This page ranks the sports of Taiwan by the evidence behind each one, because no single Taiwanese authority (Sports Administration, national federations, or a population survey) could be reached in this run with a comparable participation or membership figure for every sport, so the order below rests on professional league presence, official federation status, and documented international competitive record rather than one counted quantity.
Baseball is on top, followed by Basketball and Badminton. The full table below covers 15 sports, and every section further down names the source for the figure it uses.
The Most Popular Sports in Taiwan
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 2025.
| # | Sport | Basis for the placing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baseball | The CPBL is Taiwan’s only fully professional team sport league and is widely referred to in local media as the country’s national ball game. |
| 2 | Basketball | Taiwan runs two competing professional basketball leagues, P. LEAGUE+ and the T1 League, which is unusual for a market of Taiwan’s size and points to strong domestic demand. |
| 3 | Badminton | Chinese Taipei’s men’s doubles pair won Olympic gold at both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Games, the only back to back Olympic badminton title defense by the same pair in the spor |
| 4 | Table tennis | Chinese Taipei has fielded medal contending teams and individuals at the Asian Games and World Championships for decades, with school and club programs feeding the national squad. |
| 5 | Soccer | The CTFA operates the men’s Taiwan Enterprise First Division Football League and the women’s Taiwan Mulan Football League, along with national teams across multiple age groups. |
| 6 | Taekwondo | Taekwondo has produced multiple Olympic medals for Chinese Taipei since the sport’s Olympic debut, including gold at Athens 2004. |
| 7 | Archery | Chinese Taipei archers, most notably Tan Ya-Ting, held the world number one ranking in women’s recurve archery for extended periods in the late 2000s and early 2010s. |
| 8 | Weightlifting | Kuo Hsing-chun won Olympic gold in the women’s 59kg category at the Tokyo 2020 Games and set multiple world records in the category. |
| 9 | Tennis | Hsieh Su-wei has held the world number one doubles ranking on multiple occasions and won multiple Grand Slam doubles titles. |
| 10 | Golf | Yani Tseng reached the world number one ranking in women’s golf and won five major championships between 2008 and 2011. |
| 11 | Boxing | Lin Yu-ting won the women’s featherweight Olympic gold medal at the Paris 2024 Games. |
| 12 | Track and field | Chi Cheng set a world record in the 80 meter hurdles and won an Olympic bronze medal in the 80 meter hurdles at the 1968 Mexico City Games. |
| 13 | Swimming | Swimming is included in the compulsory water safety curriculum in Taiwanese schools, which keeps participation broad at the youth level. |
| 14 | Volleyball | Volleyball is a standard school physical education sport in Taiwan and is played competitively at intercollegiate and national league level. |
| 15 | Road cycling | The Taiwan KOM Challenge is an annual international road cycling race climbing from sea level to Wuling in a single stage and draws professional and amateur riders from multiple co |
Is There a National Sport of Taiwan?
Taiwan has no national sport laid down by law or by government decision. No law or government decree establishing an official national sport was found for Taiwan in this run.
- Baseball. Baseball is commonly called Taiwan’s national ball game in local media and is the only sport with a fully professional domestic league.
#1 Baseball
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Baseball Association
- Top national league: Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL)
- Best known athlete: Wang Chien-Ming. First Taiwanese pitcher to become a regular MLB starter, winning 19 games in back to back seasons for the New York Yankees in 2006 and 2007
Baseball has the longest continuous organized history of any team sport in Taiwan, going back to the Japanese colonial period, and it is the only sport with a fully professional domestic league, the CPBL.
International success, including Chinese Taipei’s run to the title at the 2024 WBSC Premier12, has kept the sport at the center of national sports coverage.
Latest Posts about Baseball
#2 Basketball
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Basketball Association
- Top national league: P. LEAGUE+
- Best known athlete: Jeremy Lin. NBA champion of Taiwanese heritage who joined the New Taipei Kings in the P. LEAGUE+ for the 2023-24 season, drawing heavy media and attendance interest
Basketball is played widely at school and amateur level across Taiwan and supports two rival men’s professional leagues that both launched within the last decade.
The arrival of NBA champion Jeremy Lin at a domestic club in the 2023-24 season is regularly cited as a turning point for professional attendance and broadcast interest.
Latest Posts about Basketball
#3 Badminton
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Badminton Association
- Best known athlete: Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin. Men’s doubles pair who won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020 and successfully defended the title at Paris 2024
Badminton has one of the deepest amateur participation bases in Taiwan, with courts attached to schools, community centers, and companies across the country.
The sport’s profile rose further after Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin repeated as Olympic men’s doubles champions in 2024, following Tai Tzu-ying’s long run as a top ranked singles player.
Latest Posts about Badminton
#4 Table tennis
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association
- Best known athlete: Chen Chien-An. Long serving member of the national team and multiple time Asian Games medalist who has represented Chinese Taipei at several Olympic Games
Table tennis is taught widely in Taiwanese schools and has a long standing competitive pipeline that regularly produces Asian Games and World Championship medalists.
The sport benefits from low equipment cost and indoor play, which keeps participation broad even where dedicated professional leagues do not exist.
Latest Posts about Table Tennis
#5 Soccer
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Football Association
- Top national league: Taiwan Mulan Football League (women) / Taiwan Enterprise First Division Football League (men)
Soccer in Taiwan is organized around the Chinese Taipei Football Association, which runs separate men’s and women’s domestic leagues plus national youth programs.
The women’s national team and the Taiwan Mulan Football League have drawn more international attention in recent years than the men’s side, which remains outside FIFA’s top ranking tiers.
Latest Posts about Soccer
#6 Taekwondo
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Taekwondo Association
Taekwondo has been one of Chinese Taipei’s most consistent Olympic sports since the discipline joined the Games program in 2000.
National training programs feed directly into the Olympic and Asian Games squads, and the sport carries strong symbolic weight in Taiwanese Olympic history.
Latest Posts about Taekwondo
#7 Archery
- Governing body: Archery Association of Chinese Taipei
- Best known athlete: Tan Ya-Ting. Women’s recurve archer who reached the world number one ranking and won multiple World Cup and Asian Games titles
Archery has a smaller participation base than team sports in Taiwan but a disproportionately strong international record, anchored by dedicated national training centers.
Tan Ya-Ting’s run at the top of the world rankings helped establish archery as one of Chinese Taipei’s signature Olympic sports.
Latest Posts about Archery
#8 Weightlifting
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Weightlifting Association
- Best known athlete: Kuo Hsing-chun. Olympic gold medalist in women’s 59kg weightlifting at Tokyo 2020 and multiple time world champion and world record holder
Weightlifting is organized through a small number of national training centers rather than a broad club network, but it has produced some of Taiwan’s most decorated individual Olympians.
Kuo Hsing-chun’s Olympic gold and world records at Tokyo 2020 made weightlifting one of the most closely followed individual sports around that Games.
Latest Posts about Weightlifting
#9 Tennis
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Tennis Association
- Best known athlete: Hsieh Su-wei. Multiple time Grand Slam doubles champion and former world number one ranked doubles player
Tennis participation in Taiwan is concentrated in private clubs and school programs rather than public courts, which keeps the amateur base smaller than sports like badminton or table tennis.
Hsieh Su-wei’s long run of Grand Slam doubles titles has kept the sport visible in Taiwanese sports media despite the country having no top ranked singles player.
Latest Posts about Tennis
#10 Golf
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Golf Association
- Best known athlete: Yani Tseng. Former world number one ranked women’s golfer with five major championship titles
Golf in Taiwan is played mainly through private club membership, which limits broad participation compared with school based sports.
Yani Tseng’s run at the top of the women’s world rankings from 2011 remains the sport’s highest profile period in Taiwan.
Latest Posts about Golf
#11 Boxing
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Boxing Association
- Best known athlete: Lin Yu-ting. Olympic gold medalist in women’s featherweight boxing at the Paris 2024 Games
Amateur boxing in Taiwan is organized through a national federation with a comparatively small competitive base next to sports like baseball or basketball.
Lin Yu-ting’s gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics brought unusually heavy national and international media coverage to the sport that year.
Latest Posts about Boxing
#12 Track and field
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Athletics Association
- Best known athlete: Chi Cheng. Olympic bronze medalist in the 80 meter hurdles at Mexico City 1968 and former world record holder in the event
Track and field is part of standard school physical education across Taiwan, which gives the sport a broad base even without a professional domestic league.
Chi Cheng’s world record and Olympic medal in the late 1960s remain the sport’s historic high point in Taiwan and are still referenced in national sports coverage.
Latest Posts about Track and Field
#13 Swimming
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Swimming Association
Swimming is taught as part of physical education in most Taiwanese schools, which gives the sport wide youth participation even though it produces fewer international medals than sports like taekwondo or archery.
Competitive swimming in Taiwan is organized around school and club meets feeding into national championships and Asian Games qualification.
Latest Posts about Swimming
#14 Volleyball
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Volleyball Association
Volleyball is common in Taiwanese school physical education and intramural competition, particularly at the university level.
The sport has a national league structure but has not produced the kind of individual Olympic profile seen in taekwondo, archery, or weightlifting.
Latest Posts about Volleyball
#15 Road cycling
- Governing body: Chinese Taipei Cycling Association
Competitive road cycling in Taiwan is closely tied to the country’s bicycle manufacturing industry, including brands such as Giant and Merida.
The annual Taiwan KOM Challenge has become the sport’s highest profile domestic event, attracting international professional and amateur riders to a single mountain stage race.
Sources
- Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL)
- P. LEAGUE+ / T1 League
- Badminton World Federation (BWF)
- Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA)
- Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)
- World Athletics
- Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL)
- P. LEAGUE+ / T1 League
- Badminton World Federation (BWF)
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 are the most popular sports in Taiwan?
Baseball and basketball lead in domestic attention because they are the only sports with fully professional leagues, the CPBL and P. LEAGUE+ or T1 League. Badminton, table tennis, and soccer follow, each organized through a national federation with active domestic competitions.
What is Taiwan’s national sport?
No law or government decree setting an official national sport was confirmed in this research. Baseball is widely described as Taiwan’s de facto national sport because it is the only fully professional domestic league, the CPBL.
Why is soccer popular in Taiwan?
Soccer is organized nationally through the Chinese Taipei Football Association, which runs both a men’s league, the Taiwan Enterprise First Division Football League, and a women’s league, the Taiwan Mulan Football League. The women’s national team and league have drawn more international attention than the men’s side in recent years.
How popular is boxing in Taiwan?
Amateur boxing has a comparatively small competitive base in Taiwan next to sports like baseball or basketball. Its national profile rose sharply after Lin Yu-ting won the women’s featherweight Olympic gold medal at the Paris 2024 Games.
What is Taiwan’s national baseball team known for?
Chinese Taipei’s national baseball team competes internationally through the CPBL talent pool and has a long competitive history at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s tournaments. Wang Chien-Ming, who won 19 games in back to back seasons for the New York Yankees in 2006 and 2007, remains the country’s best known baseball export.
