Instagram is testing a new feature that lets users select their favorite sports and receive personalized updates from specific leagues.
App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi spotted the experiment and shared screenshots on Threads, showing an interface where users pick from a list of sports and customize the types of updates they receive from each league.
Once users select their preferred sports, Instagram uses that data to surface relevant real-time updates and showcase more sports content in their feeds. The approach mirrors the broader industry trend of social platforms fighting for sports audiences. X remains the dominant platform for live sports conversation, and this feature signals that Meta wants to pull some of that engagement onto Instagram instead.
Sports content drives significant traffic across Meta’s platforms already. In September 2025, Meta published a report showing that its apps rank among the primary online destinations for sports engagement globally. That data gives Meta a strong foundation to build on.
Additionally, some of the most followed accounts on Instagram belong to athletes, according to Boardroom’s recent analysis. Meanwhile, interest in women’s sports continues to rise on the platform, with 128 million people following the top 10 women athletes on Instagram.
These numbers suggest that a dedicated sports feature aligns with existing user behavior rather than trying to create demand from scratch.
The experiment also connects to what Meta is doing on Threads. The company has already added sport-related elements to Threads, including NFL commentary features, as part of its strategy to become a hub for real-time event discussion. A sports selector on Instagram would complement that push by feeding sports content across both platforms simultaneously. Because Instagram and Threads share infrastructure and user profiles, engagement data from one platform can inform content delivery on the other.
Instagram has not confirmed whether the feature will roll out globally or start in specific markets.
