QuestMobile 2026 Sports Economy Insight Report

Today we are sharing the 2026 Sports Economy Insight Report. According to QuestMobile data, over the past two years, with the continuous introduction of supportive policies by national and local relevant authorities, China's domestic sports industry has achieved rapid development. The "three strong players" pattern of event broadcasting platforms has initially taken shape, the monthly active user scale of the sports information industry has exceeded 35 million, and social media platforms have continuously built a traffic moat relying on the "KOL transformation of sports stars", which in turn brings unprecedented potential to the sports service industry, and sports traffic has also penetrated the entire consumption link.

Overall, the gender of the event-watching population is more balanced, and the proportion of groups aged over 51 is higher, mainly distributed in second-, third- and fourth-tier cities. This also requires "event operation" to carry out in-depth vertical cultivation across terminals and regions. Through diversified strategies, the "three strong players" pattern composed of Yangshipin, Tencent Sports and iQiyi Sports has initially formed.

Relying on the extremely high popularity of large-scale international events such as the Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics and the United States-Canada-Mexico World Cup, the Yangshipin APP has achieved weekly active user volumes of 23.37 million and 26.196 million respectively, while Yangshipin TV on the large-screen terminal has achieved a maximum of 2.26 million daily active users. The Tencent Sports APP relies on NBA series events and F1 events to build a continuous consumption model for vertical users. At the nodes of the NBA playoffs and finals, the weekly and monthly active user volume exceeds 6 million, while Cloud Aurora on the large-screen terminal has achieved a maximum of 48.186 million daily active users. The iQiyi Sports APP attracts users with vertical events such as the Australian Open and the UEFA Champions League, achieving a maximum of 1.5899 million weekly active users, while Galaxy Kiwi on the large-screen terminal has achieved 55.329 million daily active users during the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

The monthly active user scale of the sports information industry fluctuates with large-scale events and hot topics. In June and July, due to the superposition of events such as the United States-Canada-Mexico World Cup, the French Open, and the Wimbledon Championships, the monthly active users of the industry reached 39.16 million and 35.95 million respectively. From the perspective of user portraits, male users of sports information APPs account for as high as 84.4%, among which users aged 25-40 account for 55.8%, and users in second-tier and higher-tier cities account for 55.7%.

Social media has become an important traffic position for pan-sports KOLs. The deduplicated active users of active athletes Fan Zhendong, Sun Yingsha, and Wang Chuqin reached 9.81 million, 9.51 million, and 6.99 million respectively. The deduplicated active users of retired athletes Zhang Guowei, Zhao Lina, and Zhang Jike reached 26.22 million, 7.12 million, and 3.95 million respectively.

Under the combined effect of multiple factors, as early as 2024, the proportion of the sports service industry had reached 57.7%, among which sports venue and facility management, sports education and training, and sports fitness and leisure activities occupied the top three positions. Sports-related traffic has penetrated into all consumption fields, forming new consumption hotspots... What is the specific situation? You might as well check the report.

2026 China Sports Economy Report Summary

1

The event economy constitutes a core engine of the sports economy,

and multi-port traffic and KOL collaboration enhance its driving effect

1. The output focus of the national sports industry is concentrated on the sports service industry. In recent years, the state and local governments have intensively introduced a number of policies to boost the high-quality development of the sports industry from dimensions such as supply, outdoor activities, events, and finance.

2. Comprehensive events have large scale, strong influence and a broad audience base, with more diversified marketing methods. For vertical events with obvious circle characteristics, brands need to deeply understand the needs and preferences of specific groups to achieve precise marketing.

3. Different types of sports events present differentiated communication characteristics: basketball/football events have a wider audience base. Although the overall reach of vertical events is limited, their audience has stronger stickiness and outstanding deep conversion performance.

4. Different communication methods cover multi-level users from core fans to the general public, connecting users' behaviors from information query, complete event viewing to social discussion, forming a layered sports content reach pattern.

5. The monthly active user scale of the sports information industry is driven by periodic large-scale events and hot topics, which effectively activates the activity of stock core sports audiences and attracts a large number of users with light interests to pay attention to event dynamics.

6. Leading sports information industry APPs and event viewing platforms have achieved steady growth relying on the traffic dividend brought by events.

7. Sports information tends to be professional vertical content, with the audience dominated by senior male sports enthusiasts, while event content is more ornamental and easier to break out of the circle, attracting a large number of pan-sports audiences.

QuestMobile data shows that sports information APP users are more male, mainly young and middle-aged groups in high-tier cities. The gender of the event-watching population is more balanced, the proportion of groups aged over 51 is higher, and they are mainly distributed in second-, third- and fourth-tier cities.

8. The Yangshipin APP relies on large-scale international events such as the Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics and the United States-Canada-Mexico World Cup to drive weekly active users, and top-tier events bring stronger traffic.

9. The Tencent Sports APP takes NBA series events as the core traffic source, supplemented by vertical events such as F1, and builds a diversified content product system. The platform traffic rises gently following the competition cycle.

10. The iQiyi Sports APP is driven by vertical football and tennis events such as the Australian Open and the UEFA Champions League, showing small pulse peaks at key event nodes, and the weekly active users remain stable in other periods.

11. Head events can effectively drive the user activity of OTT applications, and the large-screen channel has become an important traffic carrier for group viewing of major events.

12. Sports events activate content communication, and event viewing demands drive KOL participation, increasing the scale of reached users through derivative activities, making social media content the second traffic field.

13. Pan-sports KOL content themes are closer to the public's daily entertainment needs, so the accounts can reach a larger scale of active users; professional athletes attract users with their on-court performance and professional identity.

2

Sports traffic accelerates penetration into the entire consumption link,

Brands leverage sports scenarios to open up category growth space

1. The event-watching population accesses diversified online e-commerce consumption channels, who are not only accustomed to completing daily purchases on traditional comprehensive e-commerce platforms, but also interested in trend-focused and content-based e-commerce platforms.

2. The event-watching population also has high demand for instant fresh food, especially for supermarkets focusing on service experience such as Metro and Sam's Club. Major event cycles further drive the consumption demand for instant fresh food.

3. Sports shoes and apparel have the attribute of daily wear, with a wide audience and rich content scenarios; other sub-sectors focus on special sports, with a more vertical and niche audience circle.

4. The distribution of brand attention in the mass sports shoes and apparel track is relatively scattered, and the attention resources in the vertical cycling sports track are significantly concentrated on leading brands.

5. Sports outdoor brands use marketing methods such as event sponsorship, cross