Differences between ice hockey and other sports First and foremost, there's the ice and cold. On a frictionless surface, the puck goes far quicker than the ball. Field hockey has 11 players on the field at the same time, but ice hockey only has 6. In addition, ice hockey is a "contact" sport that requires heavy equipment and hard blows to the body. Field hockey is more of a "skate" sport that can be played with just a ball or stick. There are more girls who play ice hockey than field hockey. This is because ice hockey is more popular among boys. Also, ice hockey is more energetic than field hockey and so tends to attract younger players. Finally, ice hockey is easier to learn than field hockey and so tends to attract beginners. The number of people who play ice hockey varies greatly depending on how you count them. The International Ice Hockey Federation estimates that 5 million people around the world play ice hockey. That's less than 1 percent of the population of the world. However, that doesn't take into account organized leagues or tournaments so the true figure may be much higher. The most popular form of ice hockey in the world is Canadian ice hockey. There are more participants in the Canadian National Women's Hockey League than in all of Europe's professional women's leagues combined. In Canada, ice hockey is growing faster than any other sport.