Why Should We Not Consider It A Sport?

Video games are no different than any other sport. Video games arguably require more practice time, requires skills, and are very competitive. Statistics show that about 67% of US households, and half a billion around the world play at least one hour, and most of them are between ages of 18 – 49(1, 2). If people are willing to spend most of their time, learning the concepts and practicing on a regular basis, why must we not consider it a sport? Video games should be considered a sport. Professional video gamers are focused, determined, and motivated to perform on a week to week basis. The work hard like a dear running away from its predator. They usually spend 6-8 hours per day to improve and adapt to the changes of a game, which is a lot compared to some athletes, such as soccer players who spend 4-6 hours per day (3). Video gamers have a lot more pressure on them because they need to adapt to the changing game, and due to the competition. Professional video gamers go through a lot of stress, compared to other sport athletes because there is always a chance they might be replaced by a better gamer. There is no difference between sports and video games when it comes to skills required. Sports such as soccer, basketball, and hockey
require great communication, teamwork, and mental focus. These skills are also heavily required for video games. Video games can be very simple just like many of the popular sports. There is difference between video games and sports. There are a lot more opportunities for video gamers because there are a lot of tournaments, that have rewards.
A tournament called “The International 2014” had a bigger price pool than Super Bowl in 2014. The International is second highest behind World Cup 2014. The world championship for a game called “League of Legends” had about 32 million viewers (5). League of legends had more stream viewers that the super bowl (4). So if football can be called a sport, that a game that had more viewers should be called a sport as well. In just a couple of years video games have grown so much, got attention of so many people around the world, it may even be considered an Olympic sport as of 2020. Video games deserves to be recognized as
sports. Some may say that a sport requires physical exercise, and sitting down and playing a game should not be considered a sport. If that’s the case, then why is chess a sport? Chess is similar to video games, both require mental focus, and critical thinking. If physical exercise is a sport than what about Wii? Wii has a lot of physical activity games, games such as “Just Dance”. Due to the growing community, and interest in video games, video games should be officially considered a sport. Many video games are not that different from sports, the skills required are very similar, and there is arguably more competition in gaming. There are many opportunities in video gaming compared to other sports. They are played and enjoyed all around the world, video gaming can bring out talents from different corners around the world, just like any other sport. Video gaming has a large community, and there is a lot of interest, video game no doubt should be considered a sport.