[Detailed] Ranking the most popular sports in the USA

(Read Guide at the bottom ideally before going through this)

Football -

Pace: B
Generally a decent amount of time between plays, but there is hurry up offense. Very heavy commercials.

Highlight moments: A+
I think football is the flashiest sport out there, a lot of ways to be custom and make big plays.

At its worst: C
A bad football game is not that enjoyable, as the stomping team usually runs a lot if they're up big. Usually nothing happens until clock hits 0 when one team heavily outmatches the other. I turn bad football games off a lot of the time.

Attention needed to watch: A
There is enough time between plays generally to multitask during a football game quite easily. Can basically know exactly what is going on while hardly watching.

How easy is it to be a fan of a team: C+
It feels like football teams have almost a cult-like following for people who aren't just casual bandwagoners. I think this sport has the least amount of people who "just like watching the sport" than any other. This is a good and a bad thing: when your team is winning, nothing feels greater. But when you're losing, due to your team only playing 1 game a week, you really just want to sink into a hole and not remind people you're a fan for a few days. It's really not that easy.

Basketball -

Pace: S
I think basketball has the best pace of any sport out there. I'm sure there are plenty of commercials, but they never feel like they're interrupting the flow of the game. All game stoppages really feel like they make sense at basically all times. Well done.

Highlight moments: A
Basketball has several highlight moments - not only around the league every night - but per game. Sometimes it's little things that don't get shown on social media that were really good, that you'll only get from watching the game. This would be higher, however I think there's a smaller limit to what kind of highlight plays you can make, as opposed to Football, for example, where it's really a lot broader.

At its worst: B+
There are times where a blowout feels insurmountable, however I feel like comebacks in this sport are the most common because of how a big lead is handled. Basically, the stomping team will sub out their starters and put in their bench players to give the starters a rest since they're up so much. The starters on the other team now (generally) outclass the other teams bench, and have a decent shot at coming back, assuming they don't need rest yet. This assumes the stomp isn't continuing in the 4th quarter, where usually both teams just acknowledge who is going to win and empty the deepest parts of their bench into the game.

Attention needed to watch: C
Unfortunately, what comes with the territory of being faster pace also requires more attention to watch the game. Due to how momentum swings back and forth, I could switch tabs during a game where the score is 40-42, and come back in 2-3 minutes and one team has a 15 point lead. If you're watching a basketball game, you should be keeping your attention to the game, or you'll miss key highlights/swings in momentum at any moment.

How easy is it to be a fan of a team: A
Feels like the easiest sport out there to just enjoy the game no matter who is playing. The strengths and weaknesses of any given team in basketball are less exaggerated than football. The game kind of feels the same to watch mostly across the league. People like a team, but aren't that crazy about fandom (from my experience).

Baseball -

Pace: C+
I think I'm being generous even with this grade, really. It's no secret baseball is the slowest game out there, and people will not hesitate to remind you of this, especially when they don't enjoy watching it. I think there are a lot of silly stoppages. Sometimes the pitcher and batter will both be ready in the box, and then the batter will just step out of the box for seemingly no reason to get comfortable again. Same thing with the pitcher. I will say the commercials are consistent though: during just about every half inning.

Highlight moments: B
It feels like baseball "highlight plays" are a lot less common than in basketball and football. The variety of highlights are also severely limited. Usually the only highlights you will see are diving catches for the ball, a good throw to get a runner out, or a diving catch WITH a good throw to get the runner out. This is not really any fault of the players, the game inherently will just have less of these the way it is designed.

At its worst: B
During a stomp, there really isn't a ton of letting up from the winning team, but it doesn't really feel like the outclassed team "gives up" either like in other sports. As a fan, it really felt like any half inning could really be the inning for a comeback, even in the 9th. I still watch a lot of bad baseball games because the game doesn't generally change much no matter what the score is.

Attention needed to watch: B+
You'd think as slow of a game as baseball is pace wise, this grade would be much higher. The problem is that there is a lot of dead air, and the announcers don't always announce what exactly is happening at all times due to the nature of getting off topic. Don't get me wrong, it's still quite easy to multitask, but you're not getting every single piece of information told to you when you're not looking like you do in football.

How easy is it to be a fan of a team: B
I think baseball is somewhere between football and baseball, not too cult-like, but still proud enough of your team's success to gloat a little. Not too much to be said here.

Hockey -

Pace: A+
I think hockey is very similar to basketball pace wise, and does a good job keeping commercials and silly stoppages to a minimum.

Highlight moments: B+
Don't watch hockey too often, but the periods of time I did, I definitely saw some cool highlights. From really nice saves, to really nice passes, to crazy goals, I think there is a good amount of highlight potential.

At its worst: B
This one is hard for me to judge as I haven't seen too many stomps in hockey myself the periods of time I've been a spectator, but I will say that the losing teams always look way more deflated body language wise than any other sport I can think of. There's decent comeback potential for sure due to momentum swings and the fast pace of the game, but it just doesn't feel great to watch a losing team hate themselves on live television.

Attention needed to watch: C
Again, not a ton of experience here, but it feels a lot similar to basketball in this respect. I think it might even be worse because each goal is so important and can happen at any moment without much warning, where as in basketball, it doesn't really matter spectator wise if you miss one basket.

How easy is it to be a fan of a team: B
Feels similar to baseball in terms of fandom - definitely some loyal fans out there that will talk at times, but I think generally it's not that cult like.

FINAL:
Football - 16 points
Basketball - 18.5 points
Baseball - 15 points
Hockey - 16 points

Guide:

S 5 points
A 4 points
B 3 points
C 2 points
D 1 point
F 0 points

Highlight moments - Not just touchdowns or homeruns per say, but flashy plays that make you say "wow"

(Anything with a "+" at the end is .5 points more)
(These are referring to professional sports, not college)