There is a silent war being waged in this world. A invisible war that has raged for years and one that burns bright even when some forget the rivalry exists. We are, of course, talking about international football (AKA soccer) versus American football. For the few of you that makes no sense to, allow us to explain. The way WE play football in America is what they call soccer in Europe. And sometimes, the classic rivalry sparks up and leads us to ask: what is better, European soccer or American Football. In other words, what do YOU play more of? This is a Fifa versus Madden duel shown to you in a way you have never seen it before.
Here is a quick crash course video courtesy of Topeleven.com to answer that question and make the divide more clear for you:
So really, what it often comes down to is where you live and what you enjoy more. But there are some solid stats in above video that can really floor you if someone does not know the difference or scope of these two sports. Put it this way: American footaball has 400 million fans. Quite a haul. But if you stack that by comparison to Football worldwide, they have almost 4 billion fans. That is almost one out of every two people. So clearly American football falls behind there. One point for Fifa.
On the flip side of that, the NFL brags to have close to 70,000 fans packed in like sardines at every game. Whereas most football clubs would not be able to touch that, The Borrussia Dortmund football club has a constant attendance of close to 80,000 fans every game, so american football falls behind again. Who knew? You may THINK you like playing Madden more, but the world clearly seems pro-Fifa so far.
Related: The Geek Guide to American Football
How about size of stadium? Feels like size shouldn’t matter, but even here it does. Barcelona has one arena that has a capacity of around 100,000. Whereas the biggest around here is the Metlife Stadium in New York that holds around 82,000 at max capacity. Fifa again. Wow.
At this point, you can start breaking it down to smaller areas. Who runs faster? Soccer takes it again. Who throws farther or kicks harder? Soccer (keep in mind, I am saying soccer here for Americanized readers, but both games ARE football). The funny thing is, the more you watch the Infographic, the more you realize American football has less of an impact worldwide than international football (soccer).
One final staggering fact that sort of puts the nail in the Madden/American football coffin is the simple fact that fans of American football watch 11 minutes of play during a whole game. That is 18.3%. The other 82% is watching fouls get called, watching cheerleaders, or watching grown men stare at a monitor. In international football, 62 minutes of the game is spent watching the actual game. That means spectators there watch about 70% of the game, compared to a measly 18% here.
Point is, you may think you like Madden more, but the world has spoken, and it is chanting FIFA. European football for the win.