Interesting, I didn’t think of that. Growing up in Brazil, soccer was essentially the only sport boys played, at every opportunity.

In the absence of a ball, we’d dislodge the plastic ball from a roll on deodorant packaging and play with that, or a table football ball (which hurt a lot).

Then - in my late teens - studying in the UK football (soccer) was also predominant, played during breaks etc.

My point being that the US is along other large nations such as India, China which culturally favour other games/sports.

Contrast these nations with Uruguay for example, tiny country… has won the World Cup. I do not know this, but I’d hazard a guess that soccer is THE game in the streets of Uruguay.