I was in Buenos Aires and saw a hockey shop and I was like, whaaaat? Then I realized it was selling field hockey equipment. Most places I travel, if you talk about hockey it means field hockey, and you have to say "ice hockey" if that's what you're talking about.

Assuming you mean ice and not field, it's not popular here in the UK with football (soccer) dominating but I've been to some local games, very fun to watch even though ofc the standard is pretty bad hah. One of the TV channels here used to show NA sports late at night so I got into NHL as a teen using my dad's VHS player to record parts of games. I was the weird kid at school who used to bring in NHL 2001 or ESPN NHL Hockey on Xbox

Unfortunately I'm a Canucks fan lol, though I did catch Rangers-Blackhawks in 2015 at MSG when I visited NYC which was awesome!

It's very popular in Europe

Ice no, field yes. At least here

I'd say it's about equally as popular as football (soccer for 'muricans) in Czechia and Slovakia. Those two are basically two top sports here/there. And I believe it's clear number one sport in Sweden and Finland. And Russia.

Where I've been to, not as popular. Nowhere near. But they still exist and have a following and national teams etc

Hockey requires manufactured ice.

Most of the world can't make a suitable surface for most of the year.

Saskatchewan can make enough to field a whole league of players.

there's a reason most nhl players are not from north america.

Hell, it's barely "popular" outside of the Midwest, eh? 🤷🏽‍♂️