Key stat: US sports travelers are equally willing to travel for regular season and playoff matches (41% each), outpacing worldwide fans by double digits on both. However, they trail global travelers by 18 points on major single-sport international events (21% vs. 39%), according to a December 2025 survey from YouGov.

Beyond the chart:

• The preference for regular season games over global championships reflects something deeper than apathy toward international sports. Just 2% of US consumers have ever traveled abroad for a sporting event, far below Canadians (19%) and Mexicans (14%), per YouGov.
• Meanwhile, the intent gap is just as wide looking ahead. Only 11% of US consumers plan to travel for a sporting event in the next year, compared with 24% of Canadians and 32% of Mexicans, per YouGov.

Use this chart: Drop this in your next sports sponsorship or travel marketing meeting to show how differently US and global fans prioritize travel. Use the regular season vs. international gap to benchmark your activation budget, and make the case for why domestic sports moments deserve more investment than any event on the global calendar.

Related EMARKETER reports:

• Infopack: Sports Content 2026 (EMARKETER subscription required)
• Canada Sports Consumers (EMARKETER subscription required)

Methodology: Data is from the February 2026 YouGov report titled "Sports Tourism: Measuring Fan Appetite." More than 18,000 adults ages 18+ worldwide were surveyed online during November 14-December 12, 2025. The survey was conducted in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, and the US. Data is nationally representative for each country except Hong Kong and Indonesia, which use online representative samples, and India and Mexico, which use urban representative samples.

We prepared this article with the assistance of generative AI tools and stand behind its accuracy, quality, and originality.