Should Video Games Be Considered A Sport?

Video games have been around for many years and so has competitive gaming. The first video game was created around 1970 and was Pong. Pong required one or two players to play. The players would play next to each other and the game required both players to move the courser to the ball and knock in to the other player’s side. Pong was the first competitive video game because you could play with another person. The video game industry now is a very big market and is suspected to be an 86 billion dollar industry in 2016 (A Classification Of Business Models In Video Game Industry). For the past couple of years video competitions have gotten really popular and now there is a franchise called eSports that hosts gaming competitions in big areas. “The past several year’s eSports have seen meteoric growth in dozens of markets, attracting tens of millions of viewers each year in the United States, alone” (Hollist). Esports is made up of many different games and each game has different teams that specialize in the game that they are competing in. E-Sports 89 million viewers in 2014 and is suspected to grow to 145 million in 2017. ("Red Bull Media Readies ESports Studio for Prime Time."). Competitive gaming should be recognized as a sport because each team has a sponsor. The sponsors pay for all associated costs of the player’s gaming including, but not limited to, plane tickets, hotel rooms, and food. In return the teams have to wear the

What exactly determines whether or not an activity is a sport? The term sport is defined by The Free Dictionary as: A physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively, an activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of

Continuing on, between the fact that out of country professional gamers get the same visa as out of country athletes and the fact that gaming can earn more money than being in the NFL, also that more people watch the video game championships than the MLB games, It's pretty safe to say that video games SHOULD be considered a sport.

So that begs the question, what is a sport? Is it using a ball or scoring goals or running and kicking? Is it competing against others with the aim of winning a trophy, ribbon, or money? If a so-called sport does not include those things, does that make it not a sport? Here is my criteria for a sport: if it is in the Olympics, it is a sport.

Scholars have identified six separate components that must be present within a sport in order to be considered as a true sport. One of the first requirements on this list is that the sport must include a

When you say "eSports should be broadcasted on television like any other sport," the response is inevitably: "You do know playing video games is not a sport, right?" I am totally okay honestly with that response. Some people may argue that eSports is more of a sport than some sports that get mainstream coverage and are widely considered sports, sports like Nascar, golf, cheerleading, bowling, and fishing. eSports feature live competitions between teams performed in front of an audience of thousands in person and millions watching from home every week.

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, the word “sport” is defined as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Video games do contain skills/experience , competitions, and amusement but do not emphasize “physical exertion”. Most games such as the Call of Duty and Halo franchise require no physical

Sports are very vital. They offer a lifestyle, an occupation, and even a dream. Sports require physical activity and skill in which a team or an individual compete against others for entertainment. As David G. McComb comments in "Sports in World History", "there is a high degree of training, investment, and coaching, along with spectators, rules, publicity, and institutional control that come along with these activities." While participating in sports, it is required to be able to undertake a difficult situation and perform the best out of it. Sports are definitely more than just a game.

“Should video games be considered a sport?” Well believe it or not, there’s are kids out there who actually claim it as one. And there is many reasons to why it should be called a sport. Video games is the only thing some kids are good at because not everyone is physically capable of playing sports such as basketball or football. So if they want to say it’s a sport, then why not? It consists of lot’s of competition at games, right equipment, and lots of hard work and dedication.

The dictionary definition of a sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”

Imagine it is 1990 and you just heard one of your friends got the new Super Mario World

Sports differ in many ways even the things that should be the same can be complete opposites. I have played football, basketball, soccer, track, and cross country and I never payed attention to running in any of those sports except for in track and cross country. I did not notice the amount of running I did in all those sport until I had to only focus on the running aspect. To this day I can say I have learned lessons in all of my sports, but running sports have taught me the most. Running is mandatory in so many sports, yet it has presented some of the largest obstacles for a me to overcome mentally.

However, the lack of physical skill is made up by mental skill. Viramontes describes that by saying, “...video gaming requires so much mental training, focus, and the ability to read what your opponent’s next move is going to be” (Can Video Gaming Be Considered an Actual Sport?). A sport like chess is exactly interpreted as this; thinking about strategy and other major key points to win. Along with improving in the mental side of things, video games also increase hand-eye coordination. Robin Burks, an editor for Tech Times expresses that sensorimotor skills and hand-eye coordination improve while actively playing action games (Burks). Likewise, almost everything in life, including all the sports, require great hand-eye coordination to play. Furthermore, video games fall under this category. The term ‘sport’ can be differently interpreted among the general audience. Cerrudo stated that a professor, Dr. Ingo Froböse, explains, how just physical movements do not explain a general sport (Should “eSports” Be Considered As a Sport?). Different people think that a sport does not need physical effort for example, gold or chess. Therefore, video games are a sport.

Competitive gaming, also known as e-sports, is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. With huge events and tournaments that are watched by millions of passionate fans, many people are beginning to question whether playing video games can be considered a real sport. Even though e-sports may not be as physically demanding as traditional sports like football and basketball, the structure, strong fan base and the requirements to seriously contend in the competitive gaming scene legitimize it as a “real” sport.

eSports are a form of a sport that deals with video games and their competitions between professionals. eSports has risen over the years, with 2016 allowing the peak of the popularity. “Consider this year’s The International 2016 DOTA (Defense Of The Ancients) 2 Tournament,” Chris Wood says to The State Press [eSports deserve their place in the world]. “The total prize pool available to the winning teams of this tournament (August, 2016) was around $20 million dollars. In comparison, the prize money pool for the 2014 Rose Bowl was $22 million.” With winnings like this, I believe it is beyond safe to say that eSports are on the rise, and they mean business.