Youth flag football.Flag football is the only team sport that grew.

In 2017, flag surpassed tackle as the most commonly played form of football for kids ages 6 to 12, and the gap continues to widen: 4% played flag football in 2024 versus 2.7% who played tackle, according to SFIA data cited by the Aspen Institute's Project Play. Over a longer stretch, flag football was the only team sport SFIA tracks that grew in regular participation among kids ages 6 to 17 between 2019 and 2024, while the sports around it flattened or fell.

The numbers

• 1.5 millionkids played youth flag football in 2025Sportico, as reported by Youth Sports Business Report
• 24states sanction girls varsity flag footballYouth Sports Business Report
• 1.1 millionviewers watched the NFL Flag high school girls national championship on ABCYouth Sports Business Report
• 350+teams played the 2026 NFL Flag Championships, July 23 to 26 in Westfield, IndianaYouth Sports Business Report

Thirty years in the making

The NFL's flag program traces to the mid-1990s, when the league and the players' union committed $100 million of television revenue to grassroots football, according to Youth Sports Business Report. It was not an easy sell. Scott Lancaster, hired from U.S. Soccer in 1995 to build the program, recalled the owners' first reaction: “Why would we do that? We're a tackle football league.”

One reason it has caught on, in the words of Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris: “Not everyone can play tackle because of the size and equipment needs.”

Girls' flag football is going varsity

Girls varsity flag football is now sanctioned in 24 states, and the NFL Flag high school girls national championship drew 1.1 million viewers on ABC, according to Youth Sports Business Report.

The Olympic stage

On October 16, 2023, at its session in Mumbai, the International Olympic Committee added flag football to the 2028 Los Angeles Games, alongside baseball and softball, cricket, lacrosse and squash, according to CBS News. Flag football and squash will make their Olympic debut.

What a flag tournament looks like now

The third annual NFL Flag Championships ran July 23 to 26, 2026 at Droplight Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana, hosting more than 350 girls and boys teams from across the globe. RCX Sports operated the event, which the league describes as the largest youth flag football tournament in the world, according to Youth Sports Business Report. The campus spans more than 400 acres and includes over 30 multi-purpose fields.

It has been a key objective of ours to diversify our sport base and we are investing significantly into flag football in multiple ways as part of a multi-faceted flag football vision.

What operators should take from it

These are our conclusions, not findings from the sources.

• Plan girls' and boys' divisions from the start. Sanctioning is spreading state by state, and the girls' game is where the new varsity programs are.
• Flag events scale like any other tournament. Three hundred and fifty teams across four days means fields, schedule and scores have to be solved before the first whistle.
• Lower equipment needs, as Harris notes, can mean a lower entry price. If yours is lower, say so up front.

If you are building your first flag event, start with our operator's checklist for a youth tournament and our football page. The wider participation picture is in our youth sports participation statistics.