Despite the Ravens’ overall playoff disappointments since winning Super Bowl XLVII in February 2013, Baltimore fans have remained fiercely loyal to their football team.
Since that championship season, the Ravens have dangled the promise of another Super Bowl trip in front of their fanbase almost every season, only to have the dream evaporate in frustrating fashion. Their backers for Maryland sports betting would certainly not approve of how the team has played down the stretch in the past couple of seasons.
Still, the fanbase, by some measures, is one of the most obsessed across the NFL landscape.
We can say that after getting answers to two questions from NFL fans regarding their teams — more on that later.
Recent Playoff History Frustrates Ravens Fans
Since the Ravens beat San Francisco, 34-31, in that Super Bowl 10 years ago, Baltimore has been a solid and occasionally even breathtakingly successful team in the regular season (the Ravens have +2500 odds at BetMGM Maryland Sportsbook to claim another Vince Lombardi Trophy in February 2024).
Consider: Over the past decade, the Ravens have had six winning seasons, two break-even seasons and just two losing campaigns. In other words, the Ravens are always in the hunt.
Going back to 2010, they have the seventh-most regular-season wins (127) in the NFL and are tied for fifth for most playoff appearances (eight).
More recently, they have a quarterback, Lamar Jackson, who was an electric league MVP in 2019, and they have been to the playoffs five times in 10 years. Yet they have failed to advance past the Divisional Round in those five postseason trips.
And perhaps it is just that — the Ravens keep fanning their fans’ hopes that engenders intense loyalty to the point of obsession.
How We Calculated NFL Fan Obsession
BetMaryland.com took a break from covering the best Maryland sportsbook apps to wonder how Ravens fans ranked among the league’s most rabid followers. We used Statista’s 2022 “Attitudes Of NFL Teams” survey of NFL fans, which asked 1,239 respondents about their level of interest in their teams.
From there we used a formula to find who are the most obsessed fans in the NFL. We counted the NFL fanbases who responded the most positive to the following statements:
“I do not want to imagine my life without my NFL team.”
“My NFL team is part of my day-to-day life.”
BetMaryland.com averaged the percentage of positive responses to these two questions to arrive at a final number. Note, that this is just a sample size of NFL fans who claimed to be a fan of an NFL team.
NFL’s Most Obsessed Fans
Ravens Fans Rank No. 3 Most Obsessed
Overall, Ravens fans — who can take advantage of Maryland sports betting promo codes when they sign up to wager — ranked No. 3 in the “most obsessed” survey with an average of 29.5% positive responses to those two questions combined.
For the first question, “I do not want to imagine my life without my NFL team,” Ravens fans answered in the affirmative 30%. For the second question, “My team is part of my day-to-day life,” Ravens fans answered in the positive 29% of the time.
The results in the survey were extremely close.
Which Team's Fans Ranked No. 1?
The No. 1 fanbase for expressing obsession with its team is the Chicago Bears faithful with an average score of 31%. The No. 2 obsessed fanbase was that of the Buffalo Bills with a 30% average.
The Bears’ showing was a bit surprising considering that since 2010, Chicago has had a losing record, winning just 44.3% of its games, has been to the playoffs just three times, and won just one playoff game.
Rounding out the top 10 obsessed fanbases were: 4. Dallas, 5. Carolina, 6. Cincinnati, 7. Green Bay, 8. Arizona, 9. New York Giants, 10. (tie) San Francisco, Kansas City and Denver.
So, at least in this contest, the Ravens are atop the AFC North, edging rival Cincinnati and — perhaps surprisingly — two markets that do not appear in the top 10, Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
How do oddsmakers feel about the team’s chances to replicate that standing when the team takes the field in 2023? The Ravens have +300 odds with Caesars Maryland Sportsbook to win the AFC North and +2000 to represent the conference in the Super Bowl.
