Which US State Loves Sports the Most? NFL, NBA, NHL & MLB Fan Rankings

Every state claims to have the most passionate fans in the country, but which ones actually back it up? To settle the debate, we looked at five years of Google Trends data across America's four major professional leagues: the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB.

By averaging each state's relative search interest across all four leagues, we built a fandom ranking that rewards the true all-rounders: the states that follow the gridiron, the hardwood, the ice, and the diamond in equal measure.

Keep reading to see how your state stacks up against the rest of the country across all four major leagues.

Interesting Facts & Findings

• Nevada is America's most well-rounded fandom state, scoring at least 81 out of 100 in every single league - the only state to clear 80 across the board.
• You don't need a team to be obsessed. Delaware and Rhode Island both cracked the top six without a single big-four franchise between them. New Hampshire ranked first in the entire country for NHL interest despite having no NHL team.
• New Jersey ranked first in the nation for MLB interest, and it doesn't even have an MLB team. That's what happens when you're wedged between the Yankees, Mets, and Phillies.
• South Dakota leads the nation in NFL interest, despite the nearest NFL stadium sitting hundreds of miles away in Minneapolis.
• Mississippi has the biggest split personality in sports fandom: a nation-leading 100 for the NBA next to a rock-bottom 18 for the NHL.

What Do We Define as a Sports Fandom Hotspot?

We turned to Google Trends, analyzing relative search interest for each of the four major leagues across every state over the past five years. Interest is scored from 0 to 100, with 100 going to the state where that league accounts for the largest share of total searches.

One important note: these scores measure the proportion of a state's searches, not the raw total. California doesn't win just for being enormous, and Rhode Island isn't punished for being small. What matters is how much of a state's collective attention goes to the big four leagues.

We then averaged each state's four scores to produce its overall fandom rating, and states with identical averages share a ranking.

1. Nevada: 89.25

The Silver State takes first place. Nevada tops the fandom ranking with an average score of 89.25, and it does it by posting elite numbers in all four leagues: 81 for the NFL, 95 for the NBA, 90 for the NHL, and 91 for MLB. No other state comes close to that kind of consistency.

It's a fitting result for the fastest-rising sports market in America. The Vegas Golden Knights arrived in 2017 and lifted the Stanley Cup within six seasons. The Raiders relocated from Oakland in 2020, and the Athletics are following them to the desert. In less than a decade, Las Vegas has transformed from a city with zero major league teams into one of the country's most talked-about sports destinations.

Add in the city's status as the unofficial capital of sports betting, and it's no mystery why Nevadans are searching for scores, stats, and standings around the clock.

2. Pennsylvania: 81.25

Pennsylvania was always going to be a contender. This is a state with two passionate fanbases packed into one border: Philadelphia on one side, Pittsburgh on the other, and very little neutral ground in between.

Pennsylvania's MLB score of 94 - the third-highest in the country - reflects the deep roots of the Phillies and Pirates, while its NFL score of 87 captures the Eagles–Steelers rivalry that divides households every fall. Add solid NBA (71) and NHL (73) numbers, and you've got a fan base that never takes a day off.

T-3. Minnesota: 80

Minnesota's 94 for the NHL is the second-highest score in the country, powered by the Wild, a legendary hockey tournament, and more outdoor rinks than you can count.

But Minnesota is far from a one-sport state. With the Vikings, Timberwolves, and Twins all in the mix, the North Star State posted an 81 for the NFL and an 85 for the NBA - enough to tie for third overall.

T-3. New Jersey: 80

Sharing third place is New Jersey, which leads the entire country in MLB interest. Remarkably, the Garden State doesn't have an MLB team of its own. What it does have is a front-row seat to some of baseball's most storied franchises, wedged between the Yankees, Mets, and Phillies.

The NFL's Giants and Jets both technically play their home games in East Rutherford, New Jersey, while the Devils give the state genuine NHL pedigree. Throw in a 90 for the NBA, and you have a state that punches far above its weight, all while never ceasing to argue about which New York team is really New Jersey's.

T-5. Delaware: 79.25

Here's where the ranking gets really interesting. Delaware, the second-smallest state in the country with no major league franchise to its name, lands in the top five with matching 92s for the NFL and NBA and an 89 for MLB. The only thing letting the state down is a score of 44 when it comes to the NHL.

Delaware sits in the perfect fandom catchment area, with Philadelphia's teams just up I-95 and Baltimore and Washington within easy reach. The state may not have a stadium of their own, but they've adopted their neighbors' teams with the intensity of hometown diehards.

T-5. Rhode Island: 79.25

Tied with Delaware as the smallest state in the rankings, Rhode Island posts a 90 for MLB and an 87 for the NBA, numbers that reflect pure New England devotion. This is Red Sox and Celtics country through and through, with Fenway Park barely an hour up the road.

The 5 Least Fandom-Obsessed States

1. Alabama - 40
2. Arkansas - 40.75
3. Oklahoma - 42.25
4. Kentucky - 44.25
5. Tennessee and West Virginia - 46.25 (tied)

Alabama's low ranking does not indicate a lack of interest in sports overall. Rather, it reflects how our ranking is designed: to rank highly, a state needs to demonstrate strong interest across all four major professional leagues, not just one or two.

States where fan attention is concentrated elsewhere, in Alabama's case largely on college football, naturally score lower on this measure, even if their overall sports enthusiasm is high.

The same pattern appears throughout the lower rankings. Kentucky, Arkansas, and West Virginia each lack a major professional franchise, and local interest tends to be channeled into other sporting outlets rather than spread across the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Without consistent engagement across the four leagues analyzed, these states inevitably sit towards the bottom of the table.

The Full Fandom Map: All 50 States (Plus D.C.)

Methodology

We analyzed Google Trends data for the four major U.S. professional sports leagues - the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB - across all 50 states and the District of Columbia over the past five years.

Google Trends scores each location from 0 to 100 based on the share of total searches in that location devoted to the term, where 100 represents the location with the highest relative popularity. Because scores reflect proportional rather than absolute search volume, results are not skewed by population size.

We then averaged each state's four league scores to produce an overall fandom rating; states with identical averages share a ranking.