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
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