Any sport where the big events are hidden away on Sky Box Office will always be a minority sport. The casuals think Marvellous Marvin is a nickname for Martin Murray
Football, Cricket, Rugby, Tennis, Horse racing and Formula 1 are certainly more popular than boxing in the UK.
Wouldn`t the Rugby world cup draw more viewers than the average PPV boxing event though? It`s shown on free TV. (I don`t know if that`s Rugby league or not.)
I agree with what you`re saying, I don`t get how DAZN will be a success charging a monthly fee, I think that`s dumb as hell.
Not sure about UK wide but boxing is probably second most popular sport in Scotland. Rugby union is popular also but you only really hear about it during the 6 nations. A case could be made for golf and tennis which are also popular sports here. Cricket is near enough non existent in Scotland and people are surely at the wind up mentioning Rugby League before boxing.
The big snooker tournaments get decent figures on TV for snooker but it's not as popular as it used to be. Darts has two organisations. The PDC is the bigger one, shown on Sky and is very popular. The BDO is the traditional one but far worse in terms of quality. It's seen as a joke by a lot of people really and isn't very popular at all.
During the days before cable became popular and there were loads of channels all of a sudden Snooker and darts were national iconic sports watched on terrestial TV when thee was only 4 channels to choose from.
I would say its very popular in Northern Ireland and anywhere in Ireland really. Scotland then England then wales maybe. I could be wrong with that order but thats what Im feeling.
Are we talking about just watching or participating? Fishing is up there, especially in the participation stakes.
If it's participation, then I think boxing is one of the lower ones. Understandable I suppose, most people don't want punched in the face.