Gen Alpha Is Showing Early Signs of Sports Fandom

Much has been written about the sports industry’s youth problem — and rightfully so. 

Reaching and engaging young people is proving harder than ever amid the proliferation of cord-cutting. Look no further than Gen Zers, who are less likely than older generations to identify as sports fans, and who also watch sports on TV and attend live games at lower rates. 

But despite the negative narratives around young people and sports, some positive developments are taking hold. The NFL’s popularity among Gen Z and millennial women is soaring after its 2023 unexpectedly starred Taylor Swift. Breakout collegiate talents (and Gen Zers) like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Livvy Dunne are fueling broad interest in women’s sports. Youth athletics are even being touted as a potential solution to America’s loneliness epidemic. 

And new Morning Consult data featured in our latest Gen Alpha report, which pulls from several surveys of parents with children under 11 and under 18, shows that sports outlooks may continue to improve alongside the maturation of the next major demographic cohort. 

Born 2013 and onwards, Alphas are already engaging with sports at rates similar to their older counterparts, making them ripe to eventually embrace full-fledged fandom — a force that is increasingly shaping consumer habits in so many aspects of American life. 

Sports have room to grow with Gen Alpha

Two-thirds (67%) of Alpha parents reported that their youngest child is interested in playing sports. That figure is roughly equal to the share who said the same about playing video games (69%), a notable finding given Alphas’ deeply digital upbringing. 

The situation is somewhat less sunny for other areas of sports engagement: Watching professional and esports were the least popular of all 12 tested activities.

This can be explained, in part, by age. Our research grouped children into ages 0-4, 5-7 and 8-10, and reported interest in watching professional sports was much higher for those in the latter two age bands. 

Still, to ensure media deals stay lucrative well into the future, sports properties will need to push for a broader adoption of hobby-watching among the young generation. Streaming services are poised to remain a crucial part of this effort, as half of Gen Alpha currently streams video content daily including those under 4. 

Most of Alphas’ favorite streaming destinations, like YouTube and Netflix, have already made significant investments in sports, from exclusive rights contracts to airing one-off live events and producing behind-the-scenes league shows. This consistent presence is likely one reason that sizable shares of Alpha parents are now spending time with their children in sports-related settings, whether on-screen or in real life. 

Take (them) out to the ball game 

Three in five (60%) Alpha parents said they have watched a professional sporting event with their youngest child, and nearly 2 in 5 (39%) said the same about attending a pro game in person — both of which are not all that far off from rates reported by Gen Zers (about themselves) in 2023.

Several demographic and cultural factors are also undoubtedly at play here. Most Alpha parents are millennials, who, unlike Gen Zers, have always been quite sports-inclined. Additionally, many of these parents are craving out-of-home experiences after spending multiple years of their child(ren)’s early life in pandemic isolation — which live sporting events can often satisfy in a (relatively) cheap manner. But perhaps most simply, athletics offer a reliably safe outlet. In a real-world dominated by concurrent crises and a digital world dominated by a seemingly never-ending slew of harmful media trends, sports (and sports content) is generally something parents can feel good about their child engaging with. 

And just as with overall interest in sports, the shares of Alpha parents that reported watching and going to games (both professional and collegiate) with their children was generally much higher among those with older Alphas (8-10) than younger ones (0-4, 5-7). This suggests some legitimate forward momentum is present in young peoples’ relationship with sports, and a few properties are already doing a great job of capturing it — first and foremost of which is the NFL. 

A league of their own 

Half of Alpha parents said their youngest child is a fan of the NFL, the largest share of any tested league by a wide margin. The NBA sits in a clear second place, followed by the MLB and college football. These top four rankings closely mimic that of Gen Zers. 

The NFL and NBA have long outshined other leagues when it comes to earning fandom among young folks, and a large reason for this is their willingness to be first-movers on those consumers’ preferred platforms and interest areas. 

The NBA was partnering with TikTok — now one of Gen Zers’ go-to destinations for news and sports content — back in 2018, long before it was cool. It also nabbed even more Gen Z favor last fall by announcing a first-of-its-kind official underwear sponsorship with Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS. The NFL, meanwhile, has been investing in Gen Z-favorite spaces like fashion and beauty for years now. The importance of this kind of lasting cultural presence cannot be overstated — and both leagues are wisely transferring best practices they learned with Gen Z and applying it to Gen Alpha. 

In 2023, the NBA signed on as a brand partner at Zigazoo, a new kid-friendly social media platform. For its part, the NFL made a clear commitment to courting Alphas with its first-ever secondary broadcast of the Super Bowl this year, which took place on Nickelodeon and set the game inside the world of the network’s most popular title, Spongebob. The activation was a smashing success, earning effusive praise from kid viewers, industry-watchers and the chattering class on social media (a rarity these days!).

Practice makes perfect 

Experimental with platforms and formats will likely continue to be a winning strategy for engaging Alphas, the first generation to come of age alongside truly immersive technologies like virtual reality and artificial intelligence. (After all, Alphas are already more likely to own a VR headset than a desktop computer).

While the NFL and NBA are great standard-bearers on this front, the potential for growth among sports more broadly should not be discounted. The shares of Alphas who identify as fans of second-tier sports like golf, hockey and women’s basketball are roughly on par with Gen Z’s current fandom levels, yet another sign that Alphas general enthusiasm for athletics may eventually eclipse that of their older peers. 

It's a much-needed breath of fresh air for every corner of the sports industry, from the few major players to the many upstart leagues. And if this trajectory continues, the sports industry may just be able to consider itself future-proofed.