Association football, or soccer, is the most popular field game in the world — option 3.

The evidence. By every ordinary measure — number of players, number of spectators, number of countries in which it is the leading sport, and size of its global audience — football is first :

Why it spread so far. The game needs almost nothing — an open space and a ball. There is no expensive equipment, no prepared pitch, no protective gear, and the rules can be learnt in minutes. That, together with its diffusion through British trade, schools and railways in the nineteenth century, is why it took root on every continent, and why it is played in the poorest places as readily as the richest.

The other options. Cricket has an enormous following — well over two billion — but it is concentrated in a handful of countries of the former British empire; the ICC has 12 full members against FIFA’s 211. Hockey is India’s historic Olympic strength, with eight gold medals, and is often described as the national game though it has never been formally declared so; but it is nowhere near as widespread. Volleyball is very widely played and has a large FIVB membership, but it is chiefly an indoor game and is not a field game in the sense the question uses.

The modern game’s origin : the rules were codified by the Football Association in England in 1863, which is why the sport is formally called association football — and it is from that word that “soccer” is derived.

Hence, the answer is Soccer (Football).