What comes to mind when you think of extreme sports? Skateboarding? Paragliding? We’ve looked into all of them, and it turns out that there are a lot more that can cause serious damage.
This analysis reveals the most extreme sports in the world based on how likely you are to get a horrific knock while participating in a really radical activity, dude.
Extreme sports such as skateboarding, mountain biking, and jet skiing are among the most popular in the globe.
Extreme sports are hugely popular around the world, with millions of people looking for them each month. This study looked at which sports provide the most adrenaline rushes in various countries, with some proving to be equally thrilling no matter where you live.
Skating is very popular in the United States.
| RANK | SPORT | AVE. MONTHLY SV |
| 1 | Skateboarding | 1,512,100 |
| 2 | Mountain Biking | 835,100 |
| 3 | Ice Skating | 492,000 |
| 4 | Jet Skiing | 483,100 |
| 5 | Longboarding | 458,100 |
| 6 | Skiing | 442,000 |
| 7 | Snowboarding | 408,500 |
| 8 | Parkour | 371,600 |
| 9 | Scootering | 368,000 |
| 10 | Skydiving | 311,000 |
With 1.5 million monthly searches, skateboarding is the most popular extreme activity in the United States, with people going crazy for kickflips, wallrides, and ollies. The United States, home to Tony Hawk and other world-famous skateboarders, leads the way for skateboarding aficionados, with the sport as accessible to kids in parks as it is to daredevils on halfpipes.
In the United States, mountain biking is the second most popular extreme sport. People who want a quick bike around a field as well as those who desire downhill excursions across magnificent terrains flock to the off-road pastime, which receives over 835,000 monthly searches.
Third place goes to a sport that is far more difficult to participate in without the proper arena. Ice skating is searched for 492,000 times each month and includes everything from complex choreography to high-octane sprinting. Anyone who has seen the film “I, Tonya” knows how dangerous the sport can be.
The United Kingdom prefers two-wheeled vehicles to four-wheeled vehicles.
| RANK | SPORT | AVE. MONTHLY SV |
| 1 | Mountain Biking | 1,832,900 |
| 2 | Skateboarding | 550,880 |
| 3 | Scootering | 368,000 |
| 4 | BMX | 301,110 |
| 5 | Jet Skiing | 136,300 |
| 6 | Canoeing | 115,400 |
| 7 | Curling | 90,550 |
| 8 | Skiing | 75,300 |
| 9 | Parkour | 74,880 |
| 10 | Ice Skating | 64,300 |
Mountain biking is the most popular extreme activity in the United Kingdom. There is lots of flora and countryside for cyclists to explore, which no doubt contributes to the 1.8 million monthly searches.
With 550,000 monthly searches, skateboarding, which is now an Olympic activity, comes in second, less than half as popular as its two-wheeled opponent.
Scootering rounds out the top three with 368,000 monthly searches. What was once a child’s pastime has evolved into a highly competitive sport, with athletes executing death-defying twists and turns at heights rarely reached by two wheels.
The Most Popular Extreme Sports in Australia
| RANK | SPORT | AVE. MONTHLY SV |
| 1 | Mountain Biking | 673,480 |
| 2 | Jet Skiing | 301,480 |
| 3 | Skateboarding | 201,880 |
| 4 | Surfing | 201,140 |
| 5 | BMX | 201,110 |
| 6 | Scootering | 110,000 |
| 7 | Longboarding | 74,140 |
| 8 | Standup Paddleboarding | 74,010 |
| 9 | Canoeing | 49,980 |
| 10 | Ice Skating | 47,100 |
Mountain biking is the most popular sport in Australia (673,000 searches per month) and New Zealand (27,000 searches per month). The two countries are known for their outdoor activities, having plenty of open terrain and lush landscapes to enjoy for adventure seekers.
The Most Popular Extreme Sports in New Zealand
| RANK | SPORT | AVE. MONTHLY SV |
| 1 | Mountain Biking | 27,170 |
| 2 | Skateboarding | 18,170 |
| 3 | Surfing | 8,130 |
| 4 | BMX | 8,110 |
| 5 | Ice Skating | 7,080 |
| 6 | Skiing | 6,670 |
| 7 | Jet Skiing | 6,650 |
| 8 | Snowboarding | 6,620 |
| 9 | Drifting | 6,610 |
| 10 | Longboarding | 5,420 |
Skateboarding is also popular in both countries, ranking second in New Zealand (18,000 monthly searches) and third in Australia (201,000 monthly searches), with watersports rounding out the top three in both countries.
Jet skiing is popular in Australia, with individuals looking for it 301,000 times each month, while surfing is popular in New Zealand. Adrenaline addicts seek it out 8,130 times a month, plunging into the massive waves that encircle their beautiful coastline.
Cycling causes more injuries in New Zealand than any other sport.
Cycling is simply a means of travelling from point A to point B for many people. However, it could be in a more extreme form than you anticipate. More individuals are hurt on a bike in New Zealand than during any other activity, with wounds, punctured organs, and even stings all being typical occurrences. We can see from the country’s substantial injury data that men have a 12.3% chance of getting hurt when riding, with women coming in second at 8.9%.
Lacerations, punctured organs, and stings account for 55.9% of all cycling injuries, presumably from the stuff they’ve crashed into!
Concussion, which is induced by rugby union, is the second most commonly reported sports injury. The high-impact sport is infamous for its bone-crunching tackles, and brain injuries account for 45.7 percent of all recorded injuries.
Rugby union is responsible for four of the top five most commonly reported injuries in New Zealand. Fractures, fractured bones, dislocations, and tooth loss are just a few of the dangers associated with the sport.
However, extreme sports aren’t the only cause of extreme injuries in the country. Jogging-related soft tissue injuries account for 7% of all reported injuries, whereas gym-related fractures account for 3.1 percent. Ouch.
Men account for 74% of all head injuries in Canada.
One of the most dangerous effects of extreme sports is head injuries, which can result in broken skulls, concussions, or even small strokes. In Canada, males accounted for 74% of the 1,682 head injuries reported last year.
The majority of the injuries occurred during bicycle accidents, with 548 of them resulting in head injuries.
The head, on the other hand, accounts for only 13.98 percent of all bicycle injuries. It’s a different kind of vehicle that causes more problems than anything else in Canada, with all-terrain vehicles taking the top spot with 14.25 percent.
All-terrain vehicles, or quad bikes as they’re more often known, are built to go at high speeds across a variety of terrain, but this comes with its own set of difficulties. Even the most experienced rider can be quickly thrown from their vehicle while passing over huge rocks or encountering unexpected bumps, resulting in a lot of all-terrain suffering.
For 64 percent of female Canadian riders, horseback riding causes headaches.
While women get far fewer head injuries than males, they are nearly twice as likely to be injured while horseback riding. The head is involved in 36 percent of male horse-riding injuries, compared to 64 percent of female horse-riding injuries.
Falling off the back of a horse is a long way, and unless you’re careful, you risk injuring both the rider and the animal.
Rugby is the leading cause of brain injuries in New Zealand.
Rugby union causes more brain injuries than any other sport in New Zealand. Head injuries account for 45.7 percent of all reported injuries in the sport, topping out tough competition from cycling (15.4 percent), soccer (15.3 percent), and basketball (15.3 percent) (5.6 percent ).
New Zealand is one of the most successful rugby-playing nations in the world, with stars like Dan Carter, Sam Whitelock, and the late, great Jonah Lomu among its ranks.
The potential of head injuries is real, but it doesn’t stop the spectators from enjoying it.
Extreme sports come with a lot of dangers.
While it’s not always the case that the more extreme the sport, the more severe the injury – jogging, anyone? – they do play a role.
It’s always safer to stick to sports that don’t entail doing massive sky flips or riding wild animals unless you’re well-trained.
Methodology
The survey employed a list of the top 100 extreme sports to determine the most popular extreme sports in New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States. The team then used SEMRush to determine the search volume of these sports in each country (as of May 2021). They used the terms “sport” and “near me” to see which locations were looking for specific extreme sports.
The injury data comes from the Accident Compensation Corporation of New Zealand, and it is the most recent data available. The most recent accessible injury data in Canada comes from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
The number of injuries and types of injuries for each sport and injury category were recorded, and the percentages were calculated by dividing the number of each injury by the overall number of injuries. This provided us with the probability of each injury in each sport. The probability of getting each injury by gender were then calculated using the popularity numbers. The odds of each injury were multiplied by the popularity of the sport for each gender to arrive at the final figure.
The percentage change in injury in a certain sport, as well as the popularity of the sport among men and women, are used to calculate the odds.
For example, lacerations account for 55.9% of cycling injuries, but only 22% of males pedal, therefore if you are hurt while cycling and you’re a man, there’s a 12.3% chance it’ll be a laceration (55.9×22). If you are a woman (whose popularity is 16%) and you are harmed, there is an 8.9% probability that it will be a laceration.
Related Post:
