Quidditch is a fictional sport developed by J. K. Rowling, found in the internationally bestselling Harry Potter novels and films. It is described as an extremely rough but very popular semi-contact sport played by wizards and witches around the world. Matches are played between two teams of seven players riding flying broomsticks, using four balls and six elevated ring-shaped goals. The rules of the game are extremely complicated by the standards of modern sports, and gameplay has been described as a cross between "cricket, soccer and hockey". The game features in every Harry Potter book bar the seventh, as the series' title character, Harry Potter, plays an important position for his house team at Hogwarts. Regional and international competitions are also mentioned in the books. In the Harry Potter universe, Quidditch holds a fervent following similar to football as a globally popular sport.