Ranking the 115 U.S. based franchises in the “Big Four” professional sports leagues (NBA, NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball) by Nielsen TV market size. As of 2022, the top five markets remain the same as in previous years — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas-Ft. Worth.
Sports Team Market Size
Current year estimates from Nielsen via NAB.org.
2022-23 TV season
| # | Market | Homes (000) | NBA | NFL | MLB | NHL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York City | 7,727 | Knicks, Nets | Giants, Jets | Yankees, Mets | Rangers, Devils, Islanders |
| 2 | Los Angeles | 5,838 | Lakers, Clippers | Rams, Chargers | Dodgers, Angels | Kings, Ducks |
| 3 | Chicago | 3,625 | Bulls | Bears | Cubs, White Sox | Blackhawks |
| 4 | Philadelphia | 3,109 | 76ers | Eagles | Phillies | Flyers |
| 5 | Dallas-Ft. Worth | 3,042 | Mavericks | Cowboys | Rangers | Stars |
| 6 | Atlanta | 2,680 | Hawks | Falcons | Braves | no team |
| 7 | Houston | 2,666 | Rockets | Texans | Astros | no team |
| 8 | Washington D.C. | 2,617 | Wizards | Commanders | Nationals | Capitals |
| 9 | Boston | 2,596 | Celtics | Patriots | Red Sox | Bruins |
| 10 | SF-Oakland-San Jose | 2,593 | Warriors | 49ers | Giants, A’s | Sharks |
| 11 | Phoenix | 2,139 | Suns | Cardinals | D’Backs | Coyotes |
| 12 | Seattle-Tacoma | 2,116 | no team | Seahawks | Mariners | Kraken |
| 13 | Tampa- St. Pete | 2,069 | no team | Buccaneers | Rays | Lightning |
| 14 | Detroit | 1,937 | Pistons | Lions | Tigers | Red Wings |
| 15 | Minneapolis- St. Paul | 1,839 | T’Wolves | Vikings | Twins | Wild |
| 16 | Denver | 1,793 | Nuggets | Broncos | Rockies | Avalanche |
| 17 | Orlando-Daytona | 1,775 | Magic | no team | no team | no team |
| 18 | Miami- Ft. Lauderdale | 1,721 | Heat | Dolphins | Marlins | Panthers |
| 19 | Cleveland- Akron | 1,552 | Cavaliers | Browns | Guardians | no team |
| 20 | Sacramento- Stockton- Modesto | 1,502 | Kings | no team | no team | no team |
| 21 | Charlotte | 1,323 | Hornets | Panthers | no team | no team |
| 22 | Portland | 1,293 | Trail Blazers | no team | no team | no team |
| 23 | Raleigh- Durham | 1,290 | no team | no team | no team | Hurricanes |
| 24 | St. Louis | 1,255 | no team | no team | Cardinals | Blues |
| 25 | Indianapolis | 1,207 | Pacers | Colts | no team | no team |
| 26 | Pittsburgh | 1,175 | no team | Steelers | Pirates | Penguins |
| 27 | Nashville | 1,169 | no team | Titans | no team | Predators |
| 28 | Baltimore | 1,149 | no team | Ravens | Orioles | no team |
| 29 | Salt Lake City | 1,148 | Jazz | no team | no team | no team |
| 30 | San Diego | 1,107 | no team | no team | Padres | no team |
| 31 | San Antonio | 1,060 | Spurs | no team | no team | no team |
| 32 | Columbus | 1,024 | no team | no team | no team | Blue Jackets |
| 33 | Kansas City | 1,020 | no team | Chiefs | Royals | no team |
| 36 | Cincinnati | 954 | no team | Bengals | Reds | no team |
| 38 | Milwaukee | 900 | Bucks | Packers | Brewers | no team |
| 40 | Las Vegas | 870 | no team | Raiders | no team | Golden Knights |
| 41 | Jacksonville | 791 | no team | Jaguars | no team | no team |
| 46 | Oklahoma City | 743 | Thunder | no team | no team | no team |
| 50 | New Orleans | 687 | Pelicans | Saints | no team | no team |
| 52 | Memphis | 644 | Grizzlies | no team | no team | no team |
| 54 | Buffalo | 632 | no team | Bills | no team | Sabres |
| 69 | Green Bay-Appleton* | 471 | no team | Packers | no team | no team |
* Milwaukee is considered the Packers’ home market for ratings purposes.
I know the Sacramento Kings suck, why aren’t they listed in the Sacramento Market?
The Kings are easy to overlook, I admit — but they are listed next to Sacramento.
Devils don’t play in new york they play in Newark New Jersey
What’s your point?
Jersey has no identity of its own. The north is a NYC market, and the south is a Philly market.
This list is SO misleading. Look up “metro population”. That is the true teller. For example, Miami’s true size is over TWICE as big as Denver. And this stupid list would lead you to think Denver is bigger than Miami. Which isn’t even close to true in reality.
Not sure how you found time on Christmas to complain about this, but this is a list of Nielsen market sizes. That’s it. Nowhere on this page does it say that this is a list of which cities are bigger.
Here’s a list of the 10 largest DMA markets (U.S. and Canada) by population instead of households; Toronto is #4:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/791916/leading-tv-markets-north-america/
I am not sure why it is so hard for people to comprehend that these are Nielson TV markets and not sports / fan base markets. It is a pretty simple list of those “TV” markets and what sports teams are in them. I am sure if you spend 2 minutes on a reputable internet search page you can find a more comprehensive list of sports / fan base markets.
Why does a market like Tampa have a bigger TV market than Miami when the Miami metro area is much bigger? Or how is San Diego could be that low in the rankings when the metro area is higher up the rankings? I don’t get it.
Tampa/St Pete vs Miami alone?
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach are separate TV markets, which is why it appears the Miami numbers are so much lower than Tampa-St. Pete. San Diego’s market is just the county of San Diego, nothing more (Tijuana does not count). Imperial County is part of Yuma, AZ. All the counties just to the north of SD are part of the L.A. market.
Wheres Toronto???
List only includes U.S. cities.
Will this page be updated to reflect the Raiders now based in Las Vegas instead of Oakland when updated market numbers are released?
Thanks for catching that. I’ll fix it now.
Orlando #18 with 1.4M and experiencing explosive growth. Amazing that the only major sport we have here is a 3ed rate NBA team.
Can you add MLS, please?
Two years later, I echo your request. MLS has grown to 28 teams and has been around for 25+ years and I think has at least equal interest in some parts of the country as the NHL. One of these years I hope the media will say “of the 5 major sports…” instead of saying “of the 4 major sports…”
Milwaukee and Green Bay are definitely the same market 100% the stadium itself is like 1.5 hours from milwaukee, not to mention the state of Wisconsin is pretty steadily populated between those places.
Milwaukee is a separate market from Green Bay for Nielsen purposes.
Chicago is 20 minutes closer to Milwaukee than Green Bay is…are the Cubs and White Sox in the Milwaukee market then too?
They combine San Jose & SF but not DC and Baltimore?
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose are a single market. Washington DC and Baltimore are separate, even though they are only about 40 miles apart.
Gonna have to disagree with you not including MLS despite the obvious retorts coming. It’s a billion dollar revenue league no US league under it is close. TV ratings sans Stanley Cup Finals are favorable to NHL. Is it because not enough teams currently 24?
Also to everyone complaining above, this wasn’t explained well by the author, but, those numbers are HOUSEHOLDS (see the header, “homes”), not PEOPLE, which is also probably throwing you off, since the average home has 2.5-3 people in it.
Here’s a map of the markets for everyone’s reference: https://www.thevab.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/2017-2018-TV-DMA-Map.pdf
Tampa ahead of Miami
Interesting indeed.
tampa st pete vs Miami alone
This is just a weird way to do it. It’s analytics at it’s worst.
It’s a list of sports TV market sizes, as defined by Nielsen. Not really sure what you’re looking for here, and the reference to analytics is frankly bizarre.
These numbers seem slight … the Seattle Seahawks for example have a TV (and radio) market that includes at least six states (WA, OR, ID, MT, AK, HI) and one Canadian province, B.C. … total population 21,348,791. But according this, the market is only 1.855 million households.
Those markets are not “Seattle” though. Yes, the “Seattle” TV/radio network might go into Spokane and Boise, etc., but, they have their own Nielsen TV markets.
A separate table including “secondary markets” could be done, but, that would get tricky. I live in one that would be tricky… Fort Wayne, IN is probably “majority” Colts, but, probably only barely, there are a lot of Bears fans here, and you’d probably get ~5% legacy Lions fans (from before the Colts came to Indianapolis in 83) I’d guess as well. So, the chart is just the primary TV market.
Charlotte Bobcats are missing
They have them as the Hornets which is the current name.
This is pretty deceiving. The Buffalo Teams are religiously followed by metro Rochester and half of Erie, PA. The stats are light by at least 150,000 households pushing it up closer to 39th. And when you live in a border city leading to the most populated region in a neighboring country that also follows your football team I think that deserves asterisk treatment in the list.
Sure, but to some degree, all of the market numbers listed are off because they’re excluding neighboring area’s.
Buffalo is a backwater. That’s reflected here, only Green Bay is a smaller media market. This isn’t about loyalty, it’s about media market. Dallas is 8-9th largest city, but with Ft Worth and other suburbs, we’re number 4-5 market.
Huh? Milwaukee is over a two-hour drive from Green Bay. Seems kind of moronic to state the Packers are in Milwaukee’s market and make Milwaukee a three-sport town.
Consider it moronic if you want, but that’s the way it is. Milwaukee is the Packers’ home market.
Actually, it’s incorrect to say, “Milwaukee is the Packers’ home market.” That implies that they only have one home market. Officially, the Packers have two home markets—Green Bay and Milwaukee. This goes back to when the Packers used to play several home games each season in Milwaukee. Although that practice has ended, there is now a separate season ticket package for the former Milwaukee season ticket holders. So they are truly a home market in that sense.
Wrong, Cleveland draws exceptionally well compare to the product. Even their AHL and ARENA Football Team draw well. Cleveland/Akron market really includes Canton (approx 55 miles south) as well which places Cleveland at number 15 or 16 in market size with a population in excess of 3.5 million; for some reason this omitted just like most boards will separate or drop Akron. .
Cleveland media market, Akron has it’s own news channels, radio stations no doubt; that is what this is talking about. Cowboys are big in San Antonio, 250 miles away, but they aren’t in our media market, there are 4 others between us, San Antonio, Austin, Temple/Belton, Waco, Dallas.
The DMA in Cleveland includes Akron as well as Canton and a large portions of the counties in NE Ohio. Akron does not have it’s own television stations. The Youngstown, Toledo, Columbus, Erie, and Zanesville markets boarder the Cleveland market.
Cleveland wasn’t able to support four teams when they had the NHL, and Cleveland really can’t support three. But that’s never stopped Cleveland’s politicians from donating hundreds of millions in public money to them. Actually, at this point, it’s literally over a billion.
What does the homes category represent
Nielsen households.
The City of Baltimore is #26 on the list. They are the #5 city of 5 major cities on the Washington D.C. to New York corridor line (Philadelphia, Boston). They have a new honorary street name, The Charm’tastic Mile of Baltimore. It’s a 1.3 mile corridor that was created to give “Charm City” a branded street that could be considered one of the Top 15-20 Most Iconic Streets in America. The Charm’tastic Mile was inspired by The Magnificent Mile the famous 13 blocks of Michigan Avenue. Look for Baltimore to be more of a big player as a major city with the new addition of “The Mile”.
Where is Toronto?
Nielsen’s estimates only cover U.S. markets.
Understood—but for the purpose of comparing North American sports markets (which appears to be the primary intended purpose), it would be beneficial to include Canadian markets with teams in the Major Four Leagues.
Green Bay?
Green Bay ranks #69.
Lumped with Milwaukee at #36…