Our question on sports events interest measures both awareness of and level of interest in a range of major sporting events.

If a respondent claims to either follow or have an interest in a particular sporting event, we ask them to rate their level of interest using the following scale:

If a respondent doesn't claim to either follow or have an interest in a particular sporting event, we ask about their awareness of it instead, then classify them as either "aware, not interested" or "unaware" based on their answer.

Until Q1 2026, we measured awareness by asking the following:

“Which of the following have you heard of?”

In categories with high awareness, selecting from a long list can narrow the results. Respondents may recognize several events, but only select the ones they know best.

Since Q2 2026, to maximize recall and reduce respondent fatigue, we ask:
​
“Which of the following events have you NOT heard of?”
​

This reduces the risk of missed selections and gives a broader measure of awareness: instead of picking out every event they recognize, respondents only need to select the ones they're unfamiliar with.

Because our approach to measuring sports awareness evolved from Q2 2026, you may see shifts in reported awareness when comparing this metric across prior waves.
​

We recommend avoiding direct trending on awareness data across this change, and treating comparisons with previous waves with caution.
​

Interest levels — "a little interested," "somewhat interested," and "very interested" — are unaffected by this change and can still be trended across waves.