The Most Popular Sports Docuseries of All time

Celebrity English footballer – i.e., soccer player – David Beckham is the subject of a hit Netflix documentary series called (what else?) “Beckham,” which focuses not only on his professional career as a midfielder for Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and other teams but also on his relationship with his celebrity wife, Victoria (aka Posh Spice of the Spice Girls).

The series held the No. 1 spot on Netflix for two weeks running in October, peaking at 11.6 million views between Oct. 9 and 15, and was still on the top 10 list (at No. 8) the last week of the month. It also garnered generally favorable reviews, though the U.K.’s Sunday Times found six instances of legend-burnishing in the show, in which events were presented differently than the way they’d actually occurred.

The world of sports, with its larger-than-life characters, its mental and physical challenges, its come-from-behind success stories and tales of failure and tragedy, makes compelling subject matter for both fictional films and documentaries. The latter have become particularly popular in recent years. A 2021 study conducted by the Maru Group, a market research and insights platform, revealed that about a quarter of all American adults – and a third of those between 18 and 34 – watch sports documentaries regularly. (Here’s a list of the 50 best documentaries of all time.)

The online casino and sports betting site JeffBet recently analyzed data from IMDb, an online movie and TV database owned by Amazon, to compile a ranking of the 15 most popular sports-themed docuseries of all time, based on the number of user-generated votes each had received by mid-October.

“Beckham” finished in 14th place, but it had barely been streaming when the data was compiled. It’s interesting to note, however, that nine of these 15 series deal with soccer – including the No. 3 “Welcome to Wrexham,” a kind of real-life “Ted Lasso” dramedy in which Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buy a little-known Welsh soccer team that seeks league status. Soccer might not be the most popular sport in America (yet?), but people obviously enjoy watching its stories.

Coincidentally, nine of these docuseries, not all of them about soccer, are Netflix efforts. And it’s a pretty safe bet that the streaming platform, like its rivals, will be offering more sports documentaries in the months to come. (These are the best sports movies based on true events.)

These are the most popular sports docuseries of all time.