Soccer is #1

According to this research report, soccer increased its advantage over the other two major codes - rugby and cricket - by nearly half-a-million people and holds firm as the number one sport in the country. This year's Confederations Cup and the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup have no doubt helped boost interest in soccer.

Yet despite soccer's large following, rugby continues to outpace both soccer and cricket in terms of growing interest for a fifth year running. Cricket has managed to maintain its second place for another year.

Good news for smaller sports

The top four sports have well over seven million followers each, while the next eight sports have between three and six million supporters.

Jamaican Usain Bolt's recent world record feat sparked renewed interest in athletics, and the achievements of South Africa's own Caster Semenya has managed to increase the profile and popularity of athletics.

There is good news for the country's smaller sports, some of which have shown impressive growth, particularly triathlons, mountain biking, exercise walking, motor cross, and canoeing.

Live vs TV

One of the most promising results from this year's findings is that more supporters have become venue spectators. However, they have become more selective in the events they attend and go less frequently due mainly to the current economic climate, but also because of other factors such as convenience, parking, facility problems.

The growing television audience has resulted in an increase of the number of sport codes that get coverage, as well as a bigger assortment of sport variety programmes.