While it pains me to call it 'soccer' instead of Football, I'm no fan of the sport, which is why I can often empathise with friends across the Atlantic that don't care for it either. None of us see what the big fuss is about, or at least most of us don't as according to new stats coming from EA, the popularity of its FIFA sports titles has led to a massive growth of affection for the sport in the US.
For example, according to EA data, 50 per cent of those quizzed after playing the game consider themselves more interested in soccer and a third of them consider themselves fans of the sport afterwards. It's not a small number of Americans either, as over 293 million patches have been played in the US alone in the last year.
However it goes beyond just liking the sport, as American teams are getting a lot more love too. In FIFA 15 for example, 115 per cent more people played with US teams than they did when playing FIFA 14.
What are their favourite teams? Seattle Sounders FC comes in at number one, with LA Galaxy, New York Red Bulls and the Chicago Fire coming in behind it.
All in all, you guys have played over three billion minutes on FIFA titles in the past few years. That's a lot of 'football.'
