Is Apple more popular than baseball?

Four times as many people now visit Apple Stores as go to Major League Baseball games

Click to enlarge. Sources: IFOAppleStore.com, fangraphs.com

A throw-away stat on Business Insider last month comparing the number of visitors to Apple's (AAPL) retail stores last quarter (71.1 million, down from 74.5 million during the Christmas quarter) to Major League Baseball attendance figures for the entire 2010 season (73.6 million) got me thinking.

Could it be that Apple is more popular than America's national sport?

The company is certainly more profitable than professional baseball. Apple's revenue for fiscal year 2010 was $65.2 billion, $9.8 billion from the Apple stores alone, compared with the MLB's total revenue of $7 billion.

And as the chart above shows, visitors to the Apple stores -- which will celebrate their 10th anniversary next week -- overtook attendance at Major League Baseball stadiums in 2006 and never looked back.

More

Posted in: Apple, Apple Store, baseball, Major League Baseball, Professional baseball, Retail, Sports, television, World Series

• Today in Tech: News around the Web

  A round-up of the companies, deals, and trends that made headlines.

  Every day, the Fortune staff spends hours poring over tech stories, posts, and reviews from all over the Web to keep tabs on the companies that matter. We've assembled the day's most newsworthy bits below.

  The New York Times gives us a rare behind-the-scenes look at Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, essentially portrayed as the necessary "yin" to Mark Zuckerberg's "yang," and shedding light MORE
  JP Mangalindan, Writer - Oct 4, 2010 6:30 AM ET
  Posted in: Adobe, Apple, baseball, biometrics, body scanners, Dreamcast, Facebook, Google, HP, Jimmy Pitaro, Larry Ellison, Léo Apotheker, Microsoft, motion capture, Oracle, Qualcomm, Sega, Sheryl Sandberg, The Social Network, Verizon Wireless, Xbox, Yahoo

• SF Giants add tech to their baseball lineup

  Michael Copeland heads out to the ballpark to see technology's invasion of America's pastime.

  Ben Baer, Senior Producer - Jun 3, 2010 3:00 PM ET
  Posted in: baseball, Mobile, Mobile Computing, personal technology, web 2.0

• Even in baseball, winning isn't everything

  In at least one major-league ballpark, technology will play a bigger role in boosting sales

  Quick: What makes a baseball team a great business? If you said winning, you've only got part of the picture. Teams make money when lots of people consistently turn out or tune in to watch them – whether they win or not.

  Of course, Larry Baer wants to win, too. But as president of the San Francisco MORE

  Jon Fortt - Apr 2, 2010 7:00 AM ET
  Posted in: AT&T Park, baseball, Larry Baer, San Francisco Giants, variable priced tickets