'America's favorite pastime' passed over in favor of football: Poll

Baseball has long held the title of "America's favorite pastime," but a newly published poll shows that most of the U.S. public considers football to be "America's sport."

When asked, "If you had to choose one sport as being 'America’s sport,' even if you don’t personally follow it, which sport would it be?" 53% of U.S. respondents said football, while 27% said baseball, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Monday. 

While 8% of respondents said basketball is "America's sport," other sports, including soccer and automobile racing, were dubbed "America's sport" by 3% of respondents or less. 

Pew included an option for respondents to write in another sport. The most common responses were golf and rodeo, but other people used the blank space to give more creative responses such as "cow tipping," "grievance politics," "competitive eating" and "reality TV."

The survey was conducted with 11,945 U.S. adults from Aug. 7-27, 2023, and it has a 1.4% margin of error. 

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