Our definitive ranking of the best months to be a sports fan, from the highs of April (NBA playoffs! The Masters!) to the lows of August (baseball’s snooziest stretch).
ByMatthew Roberson
March 5, 2026
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Kelsey Niziolek; Getty Images
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Being a true-blue, round-the-clock sports fan is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that sports are pretty much always on. The curse? Sports are pretty much always on. To paraphrase a classic tweet: If sports is your favorite show, there’s always new episodes.
Some stretches of the year, however, are more fruitful than others. Personal preferences will vary, of course, but generally speaking the sports calendar is understood to have some busy highs and fairly empty lows. So with March—spoiler alert, one of the best—now in full swing, we decided to rank all 12 months by how fun they are for watching sports, in order from worst to best.
(With all due respect to sports like cricket, rugby, and track and field, this list will primarily focus on the athletic competitions that get major media coverage in America. It’s hard to fall in love with a sport when it’s taking place halfway around the world, beamed to stateside televisions in the middle of the night.)
12. August
Highlights: College football, US Open (tennis), and European soccer season begins
One reason August is such a popular vacation month: there’s simply not a ton of interesting sports to watch on TV. Among the four major American men’s sports, Major League Baseball is the only one in action, and it’s the part of the season derogatorily known as the dog days. The WNBA and NWSL regular seasons start to heat up around this time, however, and every four years a Summer Olympics swoops in to save August. But generally speaking, August really drags—fitting, perhaps, for the month where oppressive heat can breed nationwide sluggishness—and it’s a perfectly fine time to put down the ESPN app for a few weeks.
The one thing August has going for it is that it represents a changing of the tides. College football and top-flight European soccer are just starting up, with the big dog of American sports right around the corner. The NFL, whose preseason is in full swing during August, starts to re-enter the collective consciousness—so if you’re really jonesing for a football fix, feel free to watch a bunch of late-round picks and undrafted free agents compete in half-interested stadiums.
Highlights: Wimbledon finals, Tour de France, Open Championship, NBA free agency
Not much to offer here, either. July actually contains the only stretch of the year where zero of the four major men’s sports are active, which comes during the MLB All-Star break. That, at least, comes with sports’ most lively All-Star Game, not to mention the consistently fun Home Run Derby. Beyond that, one must look to Europe for the adrenaline rush of high-stakes sports. There’s Wimbledon, the Tour de France, and the Open Championship, colloquially known as the British Open. If none of those strike your fancy, every once in a while a top-line NBA star will change teams, igniting the talking-head shows for a few days.
10. November
Highlights: NFL Thanksgiving games, MLS playoffs, NWSL Championship, Davis Cup
November is quite barren from an excitement level, save for the very early stages of the NBA and NHL schedules—and watching the Cowboys embarrass themselves on Turkey Day. The two major American soccer leagues stage their postseasons during this month, and occasionally the World Series will bleed into November, but this is really a time to focus on family and friends.
9. December
Highlights: NBA and NFL Christmas games, college football bowl games
When it’s cold outside and all you want to do is stay indoors and yell at athletes from your living room, December can help with that. But there’s nothing truly on the line in December, unless your version of the Stanley Cup is the Pop-Tarts Bowl trophy. Gathering the family on Christmas Day and arguing about whether to watch basketball or football is nice, and the steady hum of the NBA, NFL, and NHL regular seasons can be comforting. It’s just…kind of bland. December is the winter version of August, in that it signifies a real sports doldrum.
8. February
Highlights: Super Bowl, Daytona 500, Formula 1 season begins
The Super Bowl does most of the heavy lifting here, completely overshadowing everything else going on. (There’s a reason the Winter Olympics hold off on the opening ceremonies until football season is done and dusted.) Auto enthusiasts are thoroughly sated during the shortest month of the year as well, which, like all winter months, has the reliable nightly slate of NBA and NHL games.
7. September
Highlights: NFL season begins, US Open (tennis) finals, WNBA playoffs begin, Ryder Cup
It is the personal opinion of this writer that September is the best month, period, and the sports landscape has a hand in this. Welcoming the NFL back—without the soul-crushing weather of late-football season—is huge for morale. Watching MLB teams either plummet out of contention or fight their way into the playoffs is pure cinema, as is the drama of the US Open finals, especially if an American is going for glory on home turf.
Crack a window, get comfy in a ratty T-shirt and a pair of old gym shorts, and flip between the Week 1 gridiron slate, meaningful intradivisional baseball games, and the best tennis and women’s basketball the United States has to offer.
6. January
Highlights: NFL playoffs, College Football Playoff, Australian Open, World Junior hockey finals
As far as I’m concerned, a do-or-die football game is the best theater in all of sports. Getting a double dose of that—in both college and pro ball—throughout the entire month of January makes it a sneaky great sports month.
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It’s hard to beat the aesthetic of a snowy NFL playoff gameCooper Neill/Getty Images
Highlights: March Madness, MLB Opening Day, World Baseball Classic
A lot of things are happening in March—with football finally out of the way, it always feels like the time when the NBA season really snaps into focus, as the league starts rolling out its Sunday showcases—but the men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments are the biggest reason for the strong ranking here. The combination of the Madness starting and Major League Baseball kicking off a week or two later is pure bliss. And in 2026 specifically, a World Baseball Classic only adds to the fiesta.
Highlights: NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Final, US Open (golf), French Open finals, Wimbledon begins
June is all about winning championships—you know, the whole point of professional sports! Anyone who follows the NBA or NHL knows the enthralling feeling of tension that comes with watching the seasons whittle down to the very end, and the added pep one gets from knowing every day is about to have a heated playoff game or two to lock in on. For something lighter, there’s the opening stages of Wimbledon, which is elite background television. For something still intense, but not quite on the level of an overtime Game 7, a major golf tournament with a $20 million prize typically bisects the month.
Highlights: Champions League final, NBA and NHL playoffs, Kentucky Derby, French Open, Indy 500, French Open begins, Premier League final day, PGA Championship
The month that offers the most variety (horses! fast cars!) also has a perfect mix of domestic and abroad, impassioned and laidback. In the USA, most eyes are drawn to the basketball and hockey postseasons, whereas the rest of the world is monitoring the situation at Roland Garros and whatever city is hosting the Champions League final. Those with a need for their sports to really matter have a ton of cutthroat tournaments and winner-take-all games to watch, while the casuals can drift into early-season baseball and the Kentucky Derby.
Highlights: NBA/NHL playoffs start, Final Four, Masters, NFL Draft, Frozen Four
Spring is never truly sprung until the dulcet tones of Jim Nantz at Augusta National come flooding in. Of course, for years, Nantz couldn’t fully set his sights on the Masters until he was finished calling the men’s Final Four, which starts April off with a bang. A weekend where you can intersperse a little NHL playoffs with some matinee baseball, then check in on the golfers at Amen Corner, and end the night with a primetime NBA playoff game? Well, that can only really be topped by our No. 1 month.
1. October
Highlights: MLB playoffs, NBA/NHL season begins, WNBA Finals, sports eclipse
Much like how California (the best state) offers the ability to ski and surf on the same day, October (the best sports month) sometimes boasts NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA games all in a single evening. The rare but enchanting sports eclipse—when the MLB playoffs overlap with the other three’s regular seasons—is a dream for sports junkies and nightmare fuel for their sports-agnostic partners. But that’s life, baby.