Ever since the turn of the 20th century, sports have become central to many cultures around the world. It’s those shared values that make events like the Olympics and World Cup a success. With some calls for including eSports, which is essentially competitive video games, in the Olympics, it’s clear there’s a convergence happening between the two worlds.
How Gaming Became Popularized as a Sport
Even just 10 years ago, the idea of hosting video games on a serious sports TV network like ESPN was laughable. That was until Twitch came along.
Twitch came onto the scene like a new YouTube, only it was a place specifically to watch very good gamers play the audience’s favorite games. Ninja was the pioneer, when in 2018 he began to attract record-breaking numbers (enough to fill even the largest of football stadiums, and more) by playing Fortnite, a relatively new game that was experimental and groundbreaking in its own right.
As gaming continued to evolve, it wasn’t just the competitive esports scene that gained traction, but also online gaming platforms that grew in popularity. These online gambling sites such as the casinos exemplify how online gaming continues to grow by offering insights into gaming trends, platform reviews, and responsible gaming practices that appeal to a wide range of players.
It was only by 2019 that event organizers realized they could do something special here, and hosted a Fortnite World Cup. The Finals peaked at a viewership of 2.33 million and were broadcast on television. Although most of the views came from online, this really challenged the idea that gaming was somehow different from sports – both sell-out arenas, both can be televised, and both have a formal regulating body.
It is also worth considering that many large streamers stream their own commentary to live sports events. Many Twitch viewers are now the same audience as the traditional sports viewers, which completely breaks down the illusion that streamers are for Gen Z or the gaming world. This alone exposes people to other streamers on Twitch and YouTube, which even the homepage alone can remind and normalize the idea of video game streaming. The two worlds are now touching.
Gamification of Live Sports Broadcasting
Beyond gaming becoming more like sports in its organization and viewership, sports have moved itself towards the world of games. Even the modern experience of viewing these live events, there’s a real focus on engagement when it comes to interactive and game-like features.
Real-time graphics and data overlays have been slowly evolving in their sophistication, providing more analysis. The data itself is gathered through new technology which wasn’t possible in the past, and is now delivered in innovative ways too. Some fans are even watching the games on VR, where they can see a multi-screen display of various graphics and data while the game is going on.
Fantasy Football
An undercurrent of why viewers have a greater appetite for data, rather than simply watching the game, is because they’re engaged on various levels. This may be to do with betting – which has grown bigger than the traditional games, meaning they feel the real-time data of the real-life sports may give them an advantage in their digitized betting games.
But, perhaps more poignantly, it’s been the success of fantasy football, which is the purified gamification of real sports, that has brought the two worlds together. There is no better way to increase engagement of a national league than by hosting a fantasy version of it, in which players must track values, performance, and make stock-broker-like decisions each week that forecast next week’s performances into the equation.
Sports League Collaborations with eSports
The convergence between the two worlds is finally topped off with the collaboration between the traditional major leagues and the digital eSports world. For example, NBA 2K League is a video game league that is fully associated with the NBA, bringing legitimacy to eSports leagues in the world of basketball.
Although some traditional basketball viewers may not be allured by this “virtual” basketball (how virtual is it if there are real people in control of the players?), what may bring them in is sports betting. Imagine a situation in which the weekend’s NBA games have been played but a regular bettor fancies another wager, and sees the only games left on this week are in NBA 2K League.
Theoretically, it shouldn’t be much different – there should be data, live viewing, historical results, and many other things to try and create a rich betting market. Although this is not yet common, it will likely be the final step towards a fully converged world.
The convergence of video games and sports may have been facilitated by digital technology, but its main obstacle was in demystifying video games. Streaming has helped show that video games are for a broad audience, not a niche one, which has further been legitimized through collaborations with official sports leagues and a normalization of gamifying sports themselves.
