The most dangerous sport in the world is BASE jumping. A study of 20,850 jumps from a single cliff in Norway recorded one death for every 2,317 jumps. Among mainstream competitive sports, bull riding, professional boxing, and MMA carry the highest injury rates, while American football is linked to more deaths than any other U.S. school sport.
Key Takeaways
- BASE jumping has the highest death risk we found: about 1 death per 2,317 jumps.
- Bull riding has the highest injury rate in rodeo, at 32.2 injuries per 1,000 rides.
- “Most dangerous” depends on what you measure. Injury rate, death risk, and total injuries each give a different answer.
- Basketball sends more Americans to the ER than any other team sport, mostly because so many people play it.
- Cheerleading accounts for roughly two-thirds of catastrophic injuries among female high school and college athletes.
The Most Dangerous Sports at a Glance
| Rank | Sport | Injury rate (unit) | Most common injuries | Death risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BASE jumping | 1 nonfatal accident per 254 jumps | Impact injuries, lower-limb and spine trauma | 1 death per 2,317 jumps |
| 2 | Bull riding | 32.2 per 1,000 rides (pro rodeo, Canada) | Soft tissue, chest, abdomen, and limb injuries | Deaths documented; no reliable rate |
| 3 | Professional boxing | 379.8 per 1,000 bouts | Facial cuts, hand, and eye injuries | 120 pro-fight deaths worldwide, 1983–2007 |
| 4 | MMA | 228.7 per 1,000 athlete-exposures | Head injuries, cuts, fractures, concussions | No reliable rate |
| 5 | Rugby union | 81 per 1,000 match hours (pro men) | Muscle, tendon, joint, and ligament injuries | No reliable rate |
| 6 | Wrestling | 8.82 per 1,000 athlete-exposures (NCAA) | Highest NCAA concussion rate | No reliable rate |
| 7 | American football | 9.31 per 1,000 athlete-exposures (NCAA) | Tackling and blocking injuries, concussions | 16 deaths at all levels in 2023 |
| 8 | Ice hockey | 7.65 per 1,000 athlete-exposures (NCAA men) | Collision injuries | No reliable rate |
| 9 | Freestyle skiing and snowboarding | Up to 30% of Olympians injured per Games | Crash and landing injuries | No reliable rate |
| 10 | Cheerleading | About 65–70% of female catastrophic injuries | Head and spine injuries from stunts | Catastrophic injuries documented |
An athlete-exposure is one athlete taking part in one practice, game, or fight. The units above differ from sport to sport, so compare rows with care. See “How We Ranked” below.
1. BASE Jumping
BASE jumping means parachuting from a fixed object: a building, antenna, bridge, or cliff. Jumps start much lower than skydives, so there is very little time to fix a problem.
The most cited study tracked 20,850 jumps from the Kjerag Massif in Norway between 1995 and 2005. It recorded 9 deaths and 82 nonfatal accidents, which works out to 1 death per 2,317 jumps. For comparison, older estimates put skydiving at about 1 death per 100,000 jumps, and the sport has become even safer since.
A later study of the Lauterbrunnen Valley in Switzerland, the world’s busiest BASE spot, estimated fatality risk at 0.02% to 0.08% per jump. Its authors found that injury rates may have dropped over time, but fatality rates had not. Wingsuit jumps make up a large share of the deaths.
2. Bull Riding
A bull ride lasts eight seconds at most, but few events pack more risk into so little time. A five-year study of Canadian professional rodeo found bull riding had both the most injuries and the highest injury rate of any rodeo event: 32.2 injuries per 1,000 rides.
Riders get hurt when they are thrown, stepped on, or hooked by the bull. Common injuries include soft tissue damage, chest and abdominal trauma, and broken limbs. Concussions are also a major concern, which is why many riders now wear helmets and protective vests. Fatalities have been reported in rodeo, but there is no reliable death rate for the sport.
3. Professional Boxing
Boxing is the only major sport where the goal is to hit your opponent in the head. A 2023 meta-analysis of 21st-century boxing studies found professional boxers suffer 379.8 injuries per 1,000 bouts, far more than amateur or female boxers.
In a study of pro fights in Nevada, facial cuts made up 51% of injuries, followed by hand (17%), eye (14%), and nose (5%) injuries. The bigger worry is long-term brain damage from repeated blows. Researchers have counted 120 deaths worldwide from professional fights between 1983 and 2007, and several national medical associations have called for limits on the sport.
4. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
MMA combines striking and grappling, so fighters face punches, kicks, elbows, and takedowns. A systematic review of MMA injuries estimated 228.7 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures (one athlete-exposure is one fighter competing in one fight), higher than most other combat sports.
The head takes most of the damage, accounting for 67% to 78% of injuries. Cuts, fractures, and concussions are the most common injury types. Fighters who lose are injured about three times as often as winners, and bouts that end in a knockout produce more than twice as many injuries as those that end in a submission.
5. Rugby Union
Rugby is played at full speed with no pads or helmets. A meta-analysis of professional men’s rugby union found 81 injuries per 1,000 match hours, which its authors called high compared with other team sports. Training is much safer, at 3 injuries per 1,000 hours.
Muscle, tendon, joint, and ligament injuries are the most common. Most injuries happen to players being tackled, and the third quarter of a match carries the highest injury rate.
6. Wrestling
Wrestling looks less violent than boxing, but the constant pressure of an opponent’s full body weight takes a toll. NCAA data from 2014–15 through 2018–19 show 8.82 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures in men’s college wrestling.
Wrestling also had the highest concussion rate of 13 NCAA sports studied between 2011 and 2015, at 0.89 concussions per 1,000 athlete-exposures. That is higher than football or ice hockey in the same data.
7. American Football
Football has a lower injury rate than combat sports or rugby, but it carries the most deaths of any school sport in the U.S. NCAA data show 9.31 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures, with most injuries coming from general play, blocking, and tackling. Game days are far riskier than practices.
The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research (NCCSIR) counted 16 football deaths at all levels in 2023. Many of these were indirect, caused by heat illness or heart problems rather than a hit. A long-term study found high school and college football average about 12 deaths a year, with indirect causes twice as common as direct trauma.
8. Ice Hockey
Hockey mixes speed, sticks, a hard puck, and legal body checking. Men’s college hockey shows 7.65 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures, but the rate in games is much higher than in practice, at roughly 16 to 19 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures.
Players collide with each other, the boards, and the ice at high speed, which drives the risk of concussions and upper-body injuries.
9. Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding
Big air, halfpipe, and slopestyle events send athletes high into the air and onto hard landings. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, 30% of ski halfpipe athletes were injured, followed by ski big air (28%), snowboard slopestyle (23%), and ski slopestyle (22%).
That is during a 17-day Games, so these are not yearly rates. Still, these events top the injury list at every recent Winter Olympics.
10. Cheerleading
Cheerleading rarely makes these lists, but it should. Modern cheer includes pyramids, basket tosses, and flips, often without the safety rules that govern gymnastics. NCCSIR data show cheerleading accounts for 65.2% of catastrophic injuries among female high school athletes and 70.5% among female college athletes.
Most of these injuries are to the head and spine. There is another side to this: USA Cheer, the sport’s governing body, notes that cheer’s catastrophic injury rate per participant is lower than girls’ ice hockey, gymnastics, and soccer. Cheer’s high share comes partly from how many girls take part.
Which Sport Causes the Most Injuries?
If you count total injuries instead of injury rate, the list changes completely. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), 4.4 million Americans were treated in emergency rooms for sports and recreation injuries in 2024.
The activities with the most ER visits that year:
- Exercise and exercise equipment: 564,845
- Cycling: 454,008
- Basketball: 385,777
- Football: 318,243
- Soccer: 265,761
Basketball causes the most injuries of any team sport, but that does not make it the most dangerous. Millions more people play basketball than ride bulls or fight in a cage. High totals mostly reflect how popular a sport is, not how risky each game is. That is why we ranked by rate, not by total.
Most Dangerous Olympic Sports
The International Olympic Committee tracks every injury at each Games. At the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, the highest injury rates were in:
- Boxing: 27% of athletes injured
- BMX racing: 27%
- BMX freestyle: 22%
- Skateboarding: 21%
At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, ski halfpipe (30%) and ski big air (28%) led the list. Curious about which events are coming next? See our guide to the new sports at the LA 2028 Olympics, check out the least popular Olympic sports, and see which are the easiest Olympic sports to pick up.
How We Ranked
We ranked sports mainly by injury rate: how often athletes get hurt for each ride, fight, game, or hour of play. We listed death risk separately, because a sport can cause many minor injuries but few deaths, or the other way around. Total injuries are a third measure, covered in their own section, since they mostly reflect how many people play.
Each sport is studied differently. Rodeo counts injuries per ride, combat sports per bout or athlete-exposure, rugby per match hour, and NCAA sports per athlete-exposure. Because these units cannot be converted into one number, we also weighed how much exposure produced each risk. For example, professional boxing has a higher injury rate per bout than bull riding has per ride. But a bull ride lasts eight seconds at most, while a pro bout can run up to 12 rounds, so we placed bull riding higher. Estimates also vary by study, level of play, and how each study defines an injury.
Conclusion
BASE jumping is the most dangerous sport in the world when you measure the chance of dying. Among competitive sports, bull riding, professional boxing, and MMA have the highest injury rates, while American football leads U.S. school sports in deaths. If you are looking for lower-risk options, see our list of the safest sports or the easiest sports to learn. And if you want to know which sports are toughest to master rather than most dangerous, read our ranking of the hardest sports in the world.
FAQ
What is the most dangerous sport in the world?
BASE jumping is the most dangerous sport by death risk. A study of 20,850 jumps in Norway found one death for every 2,317 jumps. Among mainstream competitive sports, bull riding, professional boxing, and MMA have the highest injury rates, though each is measured differently.
Which sport has the most injuries?
In the U.S., exercise and cycling cause the most emergency room visits. Among team sports, basketball leads, with 385,777 ER visits in 2024, followed by football and soccer. These totals reflect how many people play each sport, not how dangerous each game is.
Which sport has the most deaths?
Among U.S. high school and college sports, football is linked to the most deaths. NCCSIR counted 16 football deaths at all levels in 2023. Many were indirect, caused by heat illness or heart conditions rather than a direct hit during play.
Is cheerleading really dangerous?
Cheerleading causes about two-thirds of catastrophic injuries among female high school and college athletes, mostly head and spine injuries from stunts. However, USA Cheer notes that its catastrophic injury rate per participant is lower than several other girls’ sports, including ice hockey, gymnastics, and soccer.
What is the most dangerous Olympic sport?
At the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, boxing and BMX racing had the highest injury rates, with 27% of athletes injured. At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, ski halfpipe led with 30%, followed by ski big air at 28%.
Is rugby or American football more dangerous?
Rugby has a higher injury rate in studies, but the two sports are measured differently, so a direct comparison is hard. Professional rugby union records 81 injuries per 1,000 match hours. College football records 9.31 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures, but football is linked to more deaths in the U.S.
Sources
- National Safety Council, Injury Facts: Sports and Recreational Injuries
- National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, Annual Reports
- Journal of Athletic Training, Epidemiology of Injuries in NCAA Men’s Football, 2014–2015 Through 2018–2019
- Journal of Athletic Training, Epidemiology of Injuries in NCAA Men’s Wrestling, 2014–2015 Through 2018–2019
- Boltz et al., Epidemiology of Injuries in NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey, 2014–2015 Through 2018–2019, Journal of Athletic Training
- Soreide et al., How Dangerous Is BASE Jumping?, Journal of Trauma, 2007
- Brodmann Maeder et al., BASE Jumping in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, 2023
- Butterwick et al., Epidemiologic Analysis of Injury in Five Years of Canadian Professional Rodeo, 2002
- Mao et al., Incidence Rates and Pathology Types of Boxing-Specific Injuries, 2023
- Bledsoe et al., Injury Risk in Professional Boxing, Southern Medical Journal, 2005
- Baird et al., Mortality Resulting From Head Injury in Professional Boxing, Neurosurgery, 2010
- Lystad et al., The Epidemiology of Injuries in Mixed Martial Arts, 2014
- Williams et al., A Meta-Analysis of Injuries in Senior Men’s Professional Rugby Union, 2013
- Soligard et al., Sports Injuries and Illnesses in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, British Journal of Sports Medicine
- Soligard et al., Sports Injuries and Illnesses at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, British Journal of Sports Medicine
