Are Video Games a Sport?

The debate of which activities are sports and which ones are not has been becoming more and more relevant throughout the years. It is argued that Marching Band should be considered a sport, as should Cheerleading, Skateboarding, Lacrosse, and many more from a massive list of physical activities. Now there is an entirely new activity that many believe is a sport, but it is extraordinarily unusual. What is the debate focusing on now? Video games.

The most prominent example of professional gaming being classified as a sport is, as of now, a division called Overwatch League. Last season a total of 12 teams full of some of the best players from around the world went head to head in a well-known game called Overwatch, with one team in the end being declared the winners. Overwatch is a game in which two teams of six people have to complete specific map objectives (i.e. claiming a point, moving a cart across the in-game map, or getting the most kills in a certain amount of time) by picking from a total of 28 different playable characters, each having unique abilities, and working as a team to walk away from the game victorious. While this professional gaming league started off small, the final game was shown on ESPN, marking the first time gaming was shown on a sports channel. Bizjournal says that roughly 860,000 people watched these finals, not counting people that only watched small parts and did not view the entirety of the broadcast. Fool confirms that the Overwatch League has also brought in almost $1B during its first season, with the second season starting soon. Additionally, PCGames states that Overwatch has a total of over $40M players worldwide, and that is just one game! There are countless other games that have hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions, of players. Venturebeat has referenced reports saying that there are over 1.2B people around the world that play video games. The most played physical sport is Soccer, with a mere 265 participants according to Realbuzz. Gaming has all of the components needed to be a sport, but large amounts of individuals strongly believe otherwise.

One extremely common argument that gaming is not a sport is the official definition of the word sport. The phrase “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment” comes up quite often when this topic is being discussed. It is said that video games can not be classified as a sport because they are not physical activities. Since gamers sit in a chair and only move their hands on a controller or keyboard, many participants of more “accepted” sports are upset about the comparison. Talonmarks reports that not only are video games not physical activities, but practically anybody can pick up a controller and play. It is widely believed that gaming takes little to no skill, which is yet another reason it should not be considered a sport.

Gaming is quickly growing in popularity, and will likely have an even larger fanbase in the coming years. Professional gaming will never become more of an important or well-known sport than football, baseball, or soccer, but it could very well be associated with them soon. We are in the age of technology, and that is becoming more clear by every passing day.