The following is a list of sports and games, divided by category. According to the World Sports Encyclopaedia (2003), there are 8,000 known indigenous sports and sporting games.[1]

Acrobatic arts

Air sports

Animal sports

Bovines

Dog sports

Sports in which dogs participate.

Equines

Sports using a horse.

Fishing

Hunting

Sometimes considered blood sports.

Rodeo-originated

Sports that have originated from rodeos in the old Western Americas.

Others

Athletics

Jumping

Throwing

Running

Combined

Ball games

Bat-and-ball games (safe haven games)

Games in which the objective of the offensive team is to reach safe havens to score runs, and of the defense to prevent it.

Baseball like (roundball)
  • Baseball
    • Banana Ball
    • Beeball[2]
    • Blind baseball[3]
      • Beep baseball
    • Chapitas
    • Extreme Baseball
    • Half-rubber
    • Historic
      • Knickerbocker Rules
      • The Massachusetts Game – four bases
      • Town ball – variable
      • Vintage base ball
    • Indian Ball
    • Japanese-style baseball
    • No base running
      • Corkball – four bases
        • Fuzzball (sport)
      • Wiffleball
    • Over-the-line – qv
    • Sandlot ball
    • Sans bat
      • Baseball5
      • Bolita de cancha
      • Cuatro esquinas
      • Hotbox
      • Kickball
        • Matball
      • Pelotica de goma
      • Punchball
      • Stoop ball
      • Wireball
    • Scrub baseball – four bases (not a team game per se)
    • Snow baseball
    • Softball
      • 16-inch softball
      • Fast-pitch softball
    • Stickball – variable
      • Vitilla – three bases
    • Tee-ball
    • Women baseball
  • Brännboll – four bases
  • British baseball (Pêl-Fas) – four posts
  • Elle
  • Pesäpallo – four bases
  • Rap7 ball[4]
  • Rounders – four bases or posts
    • GAA rounders
  • Thèque
Cricket like
  • Cricket – two creases
    • Backyard cricket
    • Club cricket
    • First-class cricket
      • Test cricket
        • Timeless Test
    • French cricket
    • Ice cricket
    • Indoor cricket
      • Indoor cricket (UK variant)
    • Kilikiti
    • Kwik cricket
    • Last man stands cricket
    • Limited overs cricket
      • List A cricket
        • ODI
      • Short form cricket
        • 100-ball cricket
        • T10 cricket
        • Twenty20
          • T20I
    • Parasports
      • Blind cricket
      • Deaf cricket
      • One-armed versus one-legged cricket
      • Table Cricket
    • Sans bat
      • Kick-it cricket
      • Leg cricket
    • Single wicket
      • Continuous cricket
        • Tip-and-Run cricket
    • Softball cricket
    • Tennis ball cricket
      • Tape ball cricket
    • Trobriand cricket
    • Windball cricket
    • Women cricket
      • Women Test
      • Women ODI
      • Women T20
  • Bete-ombro
  • Crocker
  • Plaquita
  • Stoolball – two stools
  • Vigoro – two wickets
  • Wicket
Longball
  • Danish longball
  • Lapta – two salos (bases)
  • Oină
  • Palant
  • Schlagball
Other games
  • Bat and trap
  • Gillidanda
  • Old cat – variable
  • Pärk

Billiards

Cue sports

Ground billiards

Boules sports

Games which the objective is to throw, roll or slide balls as closely as possible to a jack or target.

Bowling

Dodgeball

Golf

Sports which score is counted in reference to par

Invasion games

Sports in which the method of scoring is through goals.

Basketball

Football

Historical
Modern codes

Handball

Stick and Ball

Sports that use some kind of sticks for scoring goals.

Hockey
Hurling and shinty
Lacrosse
Polo

Other goal sports

Net and wall games

Sports when players/teams score whenever the opponent fails to return validly the possession of ball/bird back.

Games involving opponents hitting/throwing a ball over a net using a racket, or other piece of equipment, or merely the body:
  • Badminton
    • AirBadminton[11]
    • Ball badminton
    • Para-badminton
  • Fistball
  • Footbag net
  • Football tennis
  • Jianzi
  • Jokgu
  • Jollyball
  • Loofball
  • Miniten
  • Peteca
  • Pickleball
  • Qianball
  • Rocball
  • Sepak takraw
  • Sipa
  • Table tennis
    • Hardbat
    • Headis
    • Para table tennis
  • Tambourelli
  • Te ano
  • Tennikoit
  • Tennis
    • Beach tennis
    • Deck tennis
    • Fast4 Tennis
    • Paddle tennis
    • Parasports
      • Adaptive Standing Tennis
      • Wheelchair tennis
    • Road tennis
    • Soft tennis
    • Sphairee
    • Team tennis
    • Tie Break Tens
    • Touchtennis
    • Turbo Tennis
  • Teqball
  • Throwball
  • Volleyball
    • 9-man
    • Beach volleyball
      • Beach volleyball 4x4[12]
    • Biribol
    • Bossaball
    • Crossnet
    • Ecuavolley
    • Footvolley
    • Hooverball
    • Newcomb ball
    • Parasports
      • Sitting volleyball
      • Standing volleyball
        • Beach ParaVolley
    • Snow volleyball
    • Water volleyball
Games involving opponents hitting/throwing a ball against walls or any rebounding surface using a racket, or other piece of equipment, or merely gloved/barehanded:
  • 360ball[13]
  • American handball
  • Australian handball
  • Basque pelota
    • Frontball
    • Frontenis
    • Jai alai
    • Paleta frontón
  • Butts Up
  • Chinese handball
  • Downball
  • Downside ball game
  • Fives
    • Eton fives
    • Rugby fives
  • Four wall paddleball
  • Gaelic handball
  • One-wall handball
  • One wall paddleball
  • Paddle ball
  • Patball
  • Rackets
  • Racquetball
  • Roundnet
  • Squash
    • Squash Doubles
    • Hardball squash
    • Squash tennis
    • Women squash
  • Suicide (game)
  • Tchoukball
  • Valencian frontó
  • Wallball
  • Welsh handball
Games that use both walls and net:
  • Escala i corda
  • Jeu de paume
    • Real Tennis
  • Padbol
  • Padel
  • Platform tennis
  • Squash-volleyball[14]
  • Stické
  • Table squash
  • Wallyball
Games that use neither walls nor net:
  • Chaza
  • Crossminton (previously "Speedminton" or "Speed badminton")
  • Four square
    • Russian four square
  • Frisian handball
  • Gain-ground
    • Balle à la main
    • Ballon au poing
    • International game
    • Longue paume
  • Kin-Ball
  • Nadan panthu kali
  • Tamburello

Pilota family

Racket (or racquet) sports

Sports that use a netted racket
Sports that use a non-netted racket, or paddle

Other ball sports

Board sports

Sports that are played with some sort of board as the primary equipment.

Climbing

Combat sports: wrestling and martial arts

A combat sport is a competitive contact sport where two combatants fight against each other using certain rules of engagement.

Grappling

Striking

Mixed or hybrid

Weapons

Other

Exercising

Flying disc sports

Gymnastics

Kite sports

Mixed discipline

Decathlon, heptathlon, and the pentathlons consist of ten, seven, and five-component contests that are scored together using one points system.

Motorsports

Sports involving manned motorized vehicles

Aircraft

Motorboat

Terrestrial vehicles

Automobile

Motorcycle

Others

Orienteering

Parkour/Freerunning

Sport Parkour and Freerunning are empirically measured competitions of skill, speed or style on an obstacle based course. Self expression, demonstration of control and power are measured.

Pedal vehicle

Human-powered vehicles propelled by pedals

Cycling

Sports using bicycles, quadracycles, tricycles or unicycles.

Bicycle

Quadracycle

Tricycle

Unicycle

Watercraft

Racing

Shooting sports

Archery

Gun sports

Sports using guns (firearms, air guns, etc.).

Individual

Athletic hybrid

Skirmish

Skating sports

Snow sports

Skiing

Sled sports

Stacking

Strength sports

Tag games

Walking

Water sports

These sports use water (a river, pool, etc.).

Aquatic ball sports

Surface

Underwater

Competitive swimming

Kindred activities

Diving

Subsurface and recreational

Non motorized vehicles

Paddling sports

Canoeing and kayaking
Rafting
Rowing
Other paddling sports

Sailing

Weightlifting

Mind sports

Requiring little or no physical exertion or agility, mind sports are often not considered true sports. Some mind sports are recognised by sporting federations. The following list is intended to represent anything that is likely to be referred to as a mind sport, not to argue their validity as sports.

Card games

Combination puzzle

Competitive model sports

Remote control

Esports

Strategy board games

Other

Both physical and mind

Different classification

Potentially other sports are listed here.

Air sports

Beach sports

Versions of sports played on sand

Compromise rules

Electronic sports

Sports played using electronic devices.

Endurance sports

Ice sports

Marker sports

Parasports

Visual impaired

Wheelchair sports

Para-versions of sports played using wheelchairs

Other

Snow sports

Street sports

Strength sports

Sports mainly based on sheer power.

Tabletop games

Target sports

Sports where the main objective is to hit a certain target.

Team sports

Sports that involve teams.

Windsports

Sports which use the wind (apart from sailing):

Fictional sports

Fictional sports that are played in real life:

Miscellaneous sports

See also

References

  1. Lipoński, Wojciech (2003). "Introduction". World Sports Encyclopedia. Ozgraf. ISBN 0760316821 – via Internet Archive. Former reference version, How many sports are there in the world? ("World Sports Encyclopedia". Archived from the original on July 23, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)). See ISBN 9780760316825.
  2. "Beeball". KNBSB (in Dutch).
  3. "Blind Baseball Rulebook" (PDF). World Baseball Softball Confederation.
  4. RaP7 (2022-04-06). Baseball + Cricket = Rap7Ball | Know More About Rap7Ball – via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. "Making History: The Rise and Roll of Roller Basketball". Sport in American History. 2018-07-05.
  6. "Unicycling disciplines | Stichting Eenwieleren Nederland". stichtingeenwieleren.nl.
  7. Geekify Guys (2016-03-15). Ultimate Hoverboard Hockey – via YouTube.
  8. "Blind Hockey". www.usahockey.com.
  9. Phillips, Rachel (2021-08-11). "El Paso hockey team is born from blind child's curiosity & fearless coach". KVIA.
  10. "Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) suggested Rules for Wheelchair Lacrosse" (PDF).
  11. "AirBadminton Rules - How To Play AirBadminton – Badminton Insight". badminton-insight.com. 2020-06-06.
  12. "OFFICIAL BEACH VOLLEYBALL RULES (VERSION 4 VS 4) 2023-2024" (PDF).
  13. Wood, Robert (2012-12-01). "360Ball - a cool new sport". Topend Sports.
  14. volleyballcompass (2019-11-29). Squash-Volleyball on wall - crazy warmup game for multiple teams – via YouTube.
  15. "INTERNATIONAL GRAPPLING RULES, GRAPPLING, GRAPPLING GI" (PDF).
  16. Day, Lewin (2023-08-02). "What a Spectacle: Thai Farmers Drag Race Tuned Stand-Up Tractors". The Drive.
  17. "Electric mountain bike racing explained". BikeRadar. 2024-06-27.
  18. BENTIA, RANDI (2024-03-25). "Electrify Race League 2024 National Points Championship Hits 4 Cities". Electrify News Site.
  19. DeGeurin, Mack (2025-05-23). "In world's first humanoid boxing match, gloating robot face plants". Popular Science.
  20. admin (2025-05-31). "World Strongman and Asian Paralympic Committee Forge Historic Partnership to Advance Para-Strongman Sport Across Asia". World Strongman.