By Nicole Miller on SwimSwam
Over the past several years, social media forum Reddit has gained rising popularity among online users. With approximately 430 million monthly online users and over 180,000 different topic sub-forums, the site has seen a 42% increase in activity since the coronavirus pandemic began. With an active community of members, the site can serve as a means to measure the popularity of different sports on the Olympic stage.
Reddit has also gained popularity amongst the swimming community, with Olympian Nathan Adrian hosting an AMA (ask me anything) session on the platform in collaboration with USA Swimming’s Make a Splash program.
Across the site, there are 45 summer and winter Olympic Sports that currently have established forums for discussions about international competitions, technique, rankings, and other topics. Out of those sports, football (soccer) has the most popular forum with 3,482,982 active members, followed by baseball, which has 2,038,356 members. Both sports have audiences that are primarily driven by their presence outside of the Olympic realm, including the MLB for baseball and FIFA for soccer. The most popular winter Olympic sport forum is snowboarding, with 1,479,839 members, which also draws from an audience outside of the Olympic Games with the X-Games competition series.
The swimming forum (r/Swimming) leads all aquatic sports with its 112,171 members, ranking it 21st among all Olympic sports. In sports where the Olympics serve as the “pinnacle competition”, swimming ranks as the 13th most-popular subreddit. The diving forum (r/diving) sports a total of 29,110 members, ranking it 34th out of 45 sports. Water polo (r/waterpolo) comes in just behind with 8,622 members, 41st out of 45 sports. Meanwhile, the forum specific to open water swimming boasts 4,688 members, coming in 44th.
Reddit Forums for Olympic Sports Ranked by Number of Members
| Sport | Forum Name | Number of Members |
| Football (soccer) | r/soccer | 3,482,982 |
| Baseball | r/baseball | 2,038,356 |
| Running | r/running | 1,934,614 |
| Snowboarding | r/snowboarding | 1,479,839 |
| Hockey | r/hockey | 1,451,524 |
| Skiing | r/Skiing | 1,370,689 |
| Boxing | r/Boxing | 1,155,058 |
| Climbing | r/climbing | 1,106,977 |
| Tennis | r/tennis | 838,522 |
| Golf | r/golf | 501,675 |
| Skateboarding | r/skateboarding | 450,422 |
| Basketball | r/Basketball | 433,621 |
| Cycling | r/cycling | 270,133 |
| Rugby | r/rugbyunion | 202,833 |
| Judo | r/judo | 169,159 |
| Weightlifting | r/weightlifting | 165,038 |
| Triathlon | r/triathlon | 161,516 |
| Surfing | r/surfing | 136,785 |
| Sailing | r/sailing | 131,894 |
| Archery | r/Archery | 114,373 |
| Swimming | r/Swimming | 112,171 |
| Kayaking | r/Kayaking | 108,050 |
| Athletics | r/trackandfield | 89,870 |
| Volleyball | r/volleyball | 81,483 |
| Wrestling | r/wrestling | 74,117 |
| Rowing | r/Rowing | 73,235 |
| BMX Cycling | r/bmx | 52,857 |
| Equestrian | r/Equstrian | 49,953 |
| Figure Skating | r/FigureSkating | 43,893 |
| Gymnastics | r/Gymnastics | 37,810 |
| Table Tennis | r/tabletennis | 37,220 |
| Karate | r/karate | 32,817 |
| Fencing | r/Fencing | 32,364 |
| Diving | r/diving | 29,110 |
| Badminton | r/badminton | 27,727 |
| Taekwondo | r/taekwondo | 25,074 |
| Curling | r/Curling | 12,635 |
| Futsal | r/futsal | 11,800 |
| Handball | r/Handball | 9,598 |
| Handball | r/Handball | 9,598 |
| Water Polo | r/waterpolo | 8,622 |
| Softball | r/Softball | 6,150 |
| Biathlon | r/biathlon | 5,606 |
| Open Water Swimming | r/OpenWaterSwimming | 4,688 |
| Speed Skating | r/Speedskating | 1,433 |
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Ranking the Popularity of Different Olympic Sports Forums on Reddit