Traditional Sports Losing Ground to Digital Competition
October 13 2016 - 5:33PM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah E. Needleman
The rising popularity of competitive videogaming, or e-sports,
is chipping away at viewership of traditional sports, a new study
shows.
About 76% of e-sports fans say they are spending less time
watching games such as football and baseball because they are tuned
into videogame competitions instead, according to research firm
Newzoo BV.
Viewership is growing. About 144 million people world-wide are
expected to watch e-sports online, television or in person at least
once a month this year, up from about 115 million in 2015,
according to Newzoo.
Videogame matches are most commonly watched on the web via
live-streaming sites such as Amazon.com Inc.'s Twitch and
Activision Blizzard Inc.'s Major League Gaming. But e-sports, which
include digital versions of traditional field games as well as
competitions set in fantasy worlds, increasingly are making their
way onto television screens, with Time Warner Inc.'s TBS and Walt
Disney Co.'s ESPN networks broadcasting major matches. Fans also
flock to arenas such as New York's Madison Square Garden to watch
e-sports in person.
For now, fans of traditional sports far outnumber those who
prefer e-sports. But over time that could change. There are 75.4
million millennials, people born in the 1980s and 1990s, compared
with 74.9 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964,
according to an April report from Pew Research. The average
e-sports fan is between 21 and 35, says Newzoo, which means that
one day viewership of digital sports could rival that of the
classic kind.
"All sports depend on the next generation of fans to drive their
success, " says Lee Berke, a sports media consultant. "If you're
seeing increasing numbers of younger [viewers] attracted to
e-sports, then it's incumbent upon traditional sports properties
and media outlets to come up with products and opportunities that
attract those fans."
Some are already moving in that direction. For example, last
month the National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers
acquired a controlling stake in two e-sports teams that compete at
videogames such as Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s "League of Legends" and
Activision Blizzard's "Overwatch." Major League Baseball's Jimmy
Rollins and Alex Rodriguez as well as retired basketball star
Shaquille O'Neal are investors in an e-sports team. European soccer
clubs including Valencia CF, Manchester City FC and West Ham FC
have built up e-sports teams or signed players of a variety of
electronic games.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 13, 2016 17:18 ET (21:18 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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