Count the Ballon d'Or as one of those grand old institutions that's insanely popular. There are several reasons for it, too.
There's history: The Ballon d'Or dates back to 1956, which means it predates the European Championships, yellow and red cards, substitutions, color TV, remote controls and of course, FIFA (the video game). There's the fact that top players really, really care about winning it: Clubs mount campaigns on behalf of their star players, guys like Cristiano Ronaldo (despite already having five of these at home) get annoyed when it gets canceled (like it did last year due to the coronavirus pandemic), while Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski's face lit up like a child hearing reindeer footsteps on the roof when he found out he was among the favorites.