Sport rules: Which game do Americans know best?

2/9/23 7:00PM

On Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles will take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, in what is pretty much guaranteed to be the most watched event of the year.

‍Personal fouls

‍Perhaps unsurprisingly, football is one of three sports surveyed that a majority of Americans understand the rules of at least somewhat well, per data from YouGov. 36% of Americans feel confident they understand the rules of football “very well”, the most of any sport polled. Interestingly, there's still a solid 31% who are likely to be asking questions this Sunday or on their phones googling "football rules" — a query which spikes every year at the start of the season in September as well as during the playoffs in January / February.

‍Baseball and basketball are similarly understood by the general public, but that's where the average person begins to drop the ball. Fewer than half of Americans understand the rules of tennis, soccer, volleyball, boxing and golf at least somewhat "well", and just 12% reported understanding the rules of ice hockey "very well".

Max Knoblauch12/12/25

In less than three weeks, Disney’s “Zootopia 2” becomes the second billion-dollar film of 2025

The global film industry officially has its second billion-dollar film of the year, as Disney’s “Zootopia 2” surged past the $1 billion box office mark in just 17 days. The other billion-dollar film this year, the live-action “Lilo & Stitch,” was also made by Disney.

“Zootopia” was the fastest to reach 10 figures of any animated film. The animated hit, which had the highest-grossing global debut of the year over Thanksgiving weekend, has benefited from massive numbers in China.

Disney also logged two billion-dollar films last year with “Inside Out 2” and “Moana 2.” (The latter also came out over the Thanksgiving holiday.) The only other film to cross the mark in 2024 was “Deadpool and Wolverine,” which featured Disney’s IP.

Millie Giles

Aus-tracized

12/11/25

Would a social media ban see chronically online teens turn to AI chatbots?

As Australia enacts a world-first ban, a survey finds more US teens are using social media — and chatbots — daily.

Tom Jones

comeback singles

12/10/25

Only six of the top 20 songs of 2025 so far are from this year

Most of the biggest songs of 2025 aren’t from 2025.

Tom Jones12/5/25

Charlie Kirk’s Wikipedia page was the top English-language article on the site in 2025

The day after his assassination in September, Charlie Kirk’s Wikipedia page was viewed over 170 times per second, or almost 15 million times, according to figures from the Wikimedia Foundation.

Like with most other years, the top entries of the year reflected the fact that millions flock to the platform to learn more about political figures, films, and fatalities.

Though there’s been much talk about the impact of AI-generated search summaries and chatbots on Wikipedia — not least from the platform itself — it’s still clearly a major go-to resource for anyone looking to learn a little about a lot online, especially if this week’s year-end figures are anything to go by.