https://www.totalsportek.com/popular-sports
Don't know how accurate this list is but if you exclude individual sports and those that are mostly popular on other continents (like cricket, rugby, baseball, American football) I'd probably also put ice hockey in front of handball if we're only talking about Europe. Maybe volleyball as well.
Ice hockey and even volley must surely be above. Who the fuck watches handball? It's dreadful boring lmao
Volleyball above handball?
No way. For me, that's a chick sport. And Ice hockey is related to climate. In colder countries, it's popular, outside of that not much.
Do you even have Champions League in hockey? Never heard of it. Always was a more local sport for me, similar to American Football.
In Europe, it's football, basketball, and handball. All 3 with great intercountry competitions such as Champions League or Euroleague.
In Europe handball is huge. It's no2 sport in Germany, no1 sport in all nordic countries like Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark. I think no2 in France, I think no2 after football in most Balkanic countries like Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro. Huge in Central European countries such as Poland and Hungary. No2 or 3 in Spain as well after football and basketball.