Sports are a cornerstone part of American society and media. Wikipedia says the top four sports leagues (Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, and the National Football League) earned $55.4 billion in revenue in 2025.
That said, there’s one area in which the presence of sports is lackluster: American animation and comics. Sports make up a whole genre of Japanese anime and manga; one can enjoy comics and cartoons revolving around sports such as tennis or volleyball. Meanwhile, American cartoons treat sports mainly as something the characters occasionally do or enjoy, not as the series’ main focus.
Given how omnipresent sports are in American culture, it’s odd that ongoing cartoons and comics about sports aren’t more popular. Below are my guesses why this is the case.
Other genres eclipsed sports in comics and animation
Sports comics were once fairly popular. Long-running newspaper strips centered around sports, such as “Joe Palooka,” “Gil Thorp,” and “Tank McNamara.” Some sports comic books also existed, including ones mixing sports with sci-fi, such as DC’s “Strange Sports Stories.”
However, sports comics, like many other once-popular comic genres, have waned in popularity. Many comic publishers, including DC and Marvel, once published numerous genres, including some sports comics. Since the 60s, DC and Marvel have largely contracted their focus to superheroes, plus a few other related genres (mainly sci-fi and horror). Many other publishers also have a narrow genre focus (such as Archie and teen romance/humor), but sports isn’t one of them.
Meanwhile, American animation has produced few series mainly or solely about sports. A few exceptions include “Wacky Races” (auto racing), “Where’s Huddles?” (football), “Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics” (multi-sport Olympics parody), and “The Mighty Ducks” animated series (hockey).
That said, some comics, webcomics, and graphic novels make use of sports, mostly comics from independent creators or smaller publishers. They might overlap with other genres, such as romance. A few examples:
- Check Please (hockey, romance)
- Fence (fencing)
- Roller Girl (roller derby)
- Swim Team (swimming)
- The Breakaways (soccer)
Goodreads has a list of popular sports graphic novels and manga.
Sports make up a secondary focus in most comics and cartoons
As I noted earlier, sports are usually regarded as a secondary focus in most comics and animation. Charlie Brown’s bumbling baseball team is one of “Peanuts”’s frequently seen aspects; the Justice League once played villains in a hero/villain baseball game; Homer Simpson was once a minor league baseball mascot; and various cartoons have shown kids playing an important game, students dealing with gym class, or someone playing hooky from work/school to go to a baseball game. There’s also plenty of cartoons and comics where a character is a current or former athlete: for instance, DC Comics superhero Wildcat has as his backstory being the former heavyweight boxing champ.
But again, sports are generally treated as secondary or one-off aspects in American cartoons and comics. Nobody will mistake Batman for a sports comic, even if he’s investigating illegal sports gambling in one story. Similarly, “The Simpsons” is primarily a satirical sitcom that occasionally delves into sports. Some cartoons might have a jock as a main character (such as “The Loud House”’s Lynn Loud, Jr.), but sports still won’t be the main focus.
Fewer merchandising options?
Sports-related cartoons might not be the most lucrative in terms of merchandising. Anyone can buy a basketball anywhere, regardless if it’s got the Harlem Globetrotters’ logo on it or not. And using the actual athletes to promote sports leagues might be easier than creating a whole cartoon to do the same. One major exception is the original “Space Jam,”; its merchandise supposedly generated an estimated $1.2 billion in revenue.
That said, there’s been a few cartoons made directly tying into the major US sports leagues. NFL Rush Zone is an early 2010s action/adventure series centering around NFL football.
The popularity of American sports worldwide
Global appeal is a big priority for modern animation studios and their media conglomerate owners. As such, sports might not be as appealing a genre. The United States is famous for being fans of sports that aren’t always widely popular elsewhere in the world, and vice versa. Baseball is popular in parts of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Japan; basketball has some global popularity; ice hockey is mostly popular in northern US cities, Canada, and parts of Europe/Russia; and American football, the United States’ most popular sport, is mostly just popular in North America.
Meanwhile, the world’s most popular sport, soccer, has historically had difficulties in gaining prominence in the United States, though that’s improved in recent years. In American comics and animation, soccer is generally treated as something of interest during the World Cup, or as a children’s sport.
Image: “Check Please!.” Art by Ngozi Ukazu.
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