October is one of the busiest months on the sports calendar — NFL is in full swing, and MLB is in the throes of its postseason, while the NBA and NHL kick off their regular seasons.

With that in mind, USA TODAY was curious to know which professional sports teams in those four leagues are the most popular in every state. To find the answer, we turned to Google Trends, which allows us to track the search interest for teams across every state.

To account for single-season variability, we looked at search interest from 2021 to 2026 to give us a five-year trend. Going back a single year, for instance, could unfairly weigh teams with a singular season — good or bad.

Many teams ranked atop their home state, but a select few managed to extend their dominance past state lines. None more so than the Kansas City Chiefs, who topped four states in the center of the country.

Most popular pro sports team in every state by Google search interest

In total, 31 unique MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL teams ranked as the No. 1 most searched team in a state between 2021 and 2026.

Here’s the full map:

Which sports leagues lead the most states?

Football is the most popular sport to watch in the U.S., so it’s no surprise that the NFL rules the data here.

Across the country, 28 states are led by an NFL team, the most out of the four leagues:

The Vegas Golden Knights were the only NHL team to lead a state, ranking ahead of the Raiders and Dodgers in Nevada.

Which teams have the widest reach?

When it comes to cross-state dominance, 11 teams ranked No. 1 across multiple states.

As mentioned above, the Chiefs were the only team to top four states. However, six teams ranked No. 1 across three states, with four more topping a pair of states:

What are the top three teams in your state?

We also identified the three most-searched pro teams in each state. Explore the rankings in the interactive map below.