Best-of list · Sports Guide
Eight ranked Phoenix bars to watch the game, from an Irish pub downtown to a Mesa sports grill and the breweries near the Arizona State campus.
The short answer
8 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
Phoenix is a sports town with four pro teams and a college following, so a good game day room is easy to find and a great one takes a little sorting. The best rooms put the marquee game on the main wall, keep the sound on for the home team, and run the kitchen and the cold beer through the whole broadcast.
The metro spreads wide, so this list runs from downtown Phoenix out to Tempe and Mesa. Our pick depends on the game. For a Suns or Diamondbacks night stay central, and for college football head to the breweries near campus.
These eight all link to live profiles on our Phoenix guide. We ranked them on the game day experience, not the cocktail list.
These central rooms are the safe call for a home game, close to the arenas and built to put the main event on the big screen.
How we picked
We rank Phoenix game day bars on the things that decide whether you enjoy the match: screen count and sightlines, whether the sound goes on the game you came for, which leagues and teams each room reliably shows, the crowd, and how the kitchen holds up once kickoff arrives. Every pick links to a live profile and was cross checked against its own listing and at least one independent local source. For the wider picture, see our pillar guide to the best bars for watching the game, the Phoenix bar guide, and the Phoenix sports bar hub. Last reviewed June 2, 2026 .
The downtown rooms near the arena are the call. Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row on Washington Street runs a big crowd room, and The Vig in Arcadia gives you a patio and screens for an easier night. Both put the sound on the home team game.
Seamus McCaffrey's downtown and the Cornish Pasty Co both open for a Premier League morning with the sound on. Both draw the expat crowd for the early kickoffs, so arrive before the big matches.
The Mill Avenue and Tempe rooms are closest to campus. The Thirsty Lion on Mill Avenue runs a gastropub for the crowd, and Four Peaks Brewing pairs the game with its own brewery pours a short way north.
For a Suns night or a college Saturday, book ahead at the downtown rooms like Whiskey Row and The Vig. The Irish and brewery rooms take walk ins, though they fill fast for a marquee fixture.
James covers bars across the American Southwest and rates a game day on sightlines, sound policy and kitchen pace. Phoenix, with four pro teams and a deep college following, is a city he ranks room by room across the valley.
Last reviewed 2026-06-02 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.