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Nashville tops the list of Americans’ favorite US cities

A YouGov survey of how Americans view 50 US cities places Music City in first chair.

7/23/25 8:40AM

Whether you’re roped in by honky-tonk, hot chicken, hospitality, or the Queen of Country herself, there are plenty of fixin’s to be pickin’ from when you visit Nashville.

The capital of Tennessee was named the city that Americans view most favorably out of the top 50 most populous US cities listed in a new YouGov survey, published Monday.

Indeed, Nashville’s net favorability — the share of Americans who viewed each city favorably minus the share who viewed it unfavorably — was +44 overall, ahead of Colorado Springs (+40) and San Diego (+39). Nashville was also the most popular city among respondents living in cities (tied with Colorado Springs), as well as among those living in suburbs, towns, and rural areas, with a net score of +41.

Interestingly, the cities that were most overwhelmingly preferred by urbanites were two hubs both known for facing (political and vehicular) gridlock, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, with disparities between scores from city dwellers and small-towners totaling 33 and 30, respectively.

On the other end, San Antonio in Texas — famed for its local charm and feel despite being the seventh-most-populous city in the US — was considered 20 points more favorable by non-city dwellers than cosmopolitan counterparts.

While there’s an unsurprising trend observable in the data that people who live in cities tend to prefer cities over those who don’t, whether or not respondents had actually been to the city that they were weighing in on also affected the outcome of the survey.

Indeed, Raleigh, North Carolina, beat Nashville in terms of positive opinions among Americans who had been to the city in question, totaling +73 net favorability within this cohort compared with Nashville’s +65.

US Powerball jackpot climbs to $1.7 Billion

Your upcoming Powerball loss is DraftKings’ gain

As the Powerball jackpot has stretched to $1.8 billion, users are flooding into DraftKing’s Jackpocket lottery app.

Max Knoblauch9/5/25

Millie Giles

50 winks

9/3/25

Americans that live in colder states are more likely to sleep longer

But most US adults still aren’t getting enough shut-eye.

American flag design pillow. USA Flag Throw Pillow. Patriotic concept

Max Knoblauch

9/2/25

Paramount and Microsoft’s Activision agree to partner on a “Call of Duty” movie

Less than a month after forming, Paramount Skydance has landed another major piece of intellectual property. The studio said it’s signed a deal with Microsoft’s Activision to create a live-action “Call of Duty” film.

The competitive shooter is one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world and has been the US’s bestselling series for the past 16 years. The next title in the 22-year-old franchise, “Black Ops 7,” will debut in November.

Paramount, which closed its merger with Skydance in August, has had a summer of big deals. It acquired UFC broadcast rights in a $7.7 billion deal with TKO last month, following a $1.5 billion deal for “South Park” rights in July. The company also lured “Stranger Things” creators away from Netflix last month for a four-year film and TV development deal.

Paramount & Activision Team For ‘Call Of Duty’ Movie

Tom Jones

9/1/25

“Blinding Lights” just officially hit 5 billion streams on Spotify

Over the weekend, The Weeknd’s biggest hit crossed over the impressive threshold, with Spotify marking the feat with an Instagram post that the artist shared to his story.

According to Spotify data collated by Kworb, the song now has a staggering 5,000,010,581 streams on the platform, and is racking up nearly 1.5 million streams each day at the time of writing.

Blinding Lights crosses 5 billion chart — Sherwood News

While Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” released about two years before “Blinding Lights,” looks like it’ll be the next song to hit the 5 billion boundary, “Starboy,” another song from The Weeknd, might not be too far behind.

Besides those two megahits, The Weeknd has 26 other songs that have been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify — more than any other artist on the platform.

The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is about to hit 5 billion streams on Spotify

Besides those two megahits, The Weeknd has 26 other songs that have been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify — more than any other artist on the platform.

$30B

Nia Warfield

8/29/25

Americans are set to gamble a record $30 billion on the NFL this season, according to estimates from the American Gaming Association.

For context, that’s the same price tag as all US sports broadcasting rights combined. Leading sportsbooks like DraftKings, Flutter Entertainment’s FanDuel, Caesars Entertainment, and MGM’s BetMGM are positioned to cash in, with each battling for market share through promos, partnerships, and increasingly sticky mobile apps.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are ramping up efforts to crack down on illegal sportsbooks: this month, 50 attorneys general urged the Justice Department to take action against unlicensed gambling, warning that states are losing roughly $4 billion in tax revenue.