We cover sports across three of our data sets - GWI Core, GWI USA, and GWI Sports - with questions on topics ranging from sports participation and viewership to fan participation and esports.
Here we cover how to make best use of that data and find the insights that are right for you.
How to choose the right data set
Choosing the right data set comes down to three things: your objective, your market, and the level of detail you need.
1. Objective of analysis
Use GWI Core for broad audience understanding and cross-topic analysis
Use GWI Sports for specialist sports insights and deeper fan profiling
2. Markets covered
Use GWI Core for multi-market or global analysis
Use GWI USA if your focus is exclusively the US
3. Depth vs breadth
Choose Core or USA for breadth across many topics
Choose Sports for depth within sports fans specifically
Consider starting broad in GWI Core to size and understand your audience, then layer in GWI Sports when you need deeper, sports-specific insights.
Sports in GWI Core
GWI Core gives you a global, consistent view of sports audiences, integrated with wider consumer behaviors.
Where to find it
Located within the Sports & Exercise folder (e.g. participation, interests, events & leagues, brands)
Population represented
GWI Core represents internet users aged 16-64 across 53 markets (16+ in select markets).
Most sports questions are asked to all GWI Core respondents. The sports teams and sports brands questions sit within the brand and media module, meaning they're asked to a representative sub-sample of Core respondents and across slightly fewer markets.
Note that we classify anyone who selected a particular event, team, or league as being a follower of the associated sport to ensure a broad sample of followers are captured.
Key updates
Q4 2022: We revamped most of the sports questions, with updated structure, working, and localization to improve data quality and relevance. Prior data can be found in the legacy folder, but results may differ due to the comprehensive change in approach.
Q2 2026: We ‘re redefining how we capture awareness of the biggest sports events by asking respondents to tell us which events they haven't heard of as opposed to those they have.
Best for
Global audience sizing
Cross-market comparisons
Connecting sports to wider behaviors (media, brand, lifestyle)
Find out more about GWI Core here.
Sports in GWI USA
GWI USA provides a granular view of US sports audiences, with stronger local relevance.
Where to find it
Located within the Sports & Exercise (e.g. sports behaviors, events & leagues, sports teams and US specific brands & retailers)
Population represented
GWI USA represents US internet users aged 16+.
Most sports questions are asked to all GWI USA respondents. The sports brands owned and the sports retailers questions are asked only to respondents who purchase sports items.
Best for
US market deep dives
League- and team-level analysis
Local sponsorship and media planning
Find out more about GWI USA here.
Sports in GWI Sports
GWI Sports is our specialist add-on, designed for deep, sports-focused analysis.
Where to find it
GWI Sports data set includes a dedicated taxonomy with detailed fan, participation, and engagement questions on a number of sports, events and leagues, including Esports, betting and gambling data points.
Population represented
GWI Sports represents sports fans across 18 markets.
It’s completed by GWI Core respondents who have already identified themselves as interested in sports. In practice, this means all metrics should be interpreted with this universe of sports fans in mind. For instance, by default, indexes will tell you how much more likely your audience is to do something compared to the average sports fan rather than the average internet user.
Best for
Advanced fan segmentation
Sponsorship and partnership strategy
Understanding intensity of fandom and engagement drivers
GWI Sports is an add-on, meaning it goes deeper into a specific audience while complementing GWI Core.
Find out more about GWI Sports here.
Summary
To get the most value from our sports data:
Use GWI Core to understand the bigger picture
Use GWI USA for US-specific insights
Use GWI Sports to go deeper into sports fans behavior
This layered approach gives you both scale and depth, so you can move from broad understanding to precise, actionable insight—fast.