Many people are surprised to learn some people like to watch others playing video games. Even more surprising is that a select few make money playing video games live or online. Services like Twitch that post these video game recording online are valued over a billion dollars while services like Youtube are loaded with already played games. South Korea was recently profiled in the New York Times where the prize money for winning a video game was $1M.
This phenomenon is nothing new. People have been entertaining themselves with athletic games like baseball and football since the beginning of recorded history. People also enjoy watching athletic events when they can no longer play the sports themselves or like to see the top talent in a sport compete.
- Sports is entertainment.
- Watching people engaged in sport, is entertainment.
- Sports are no different than video games.
Video games do lack the physical fitness that participation in many sports encourage. They jury is still out on the mental benefits of video games. The actual watching either type of event is just that, watching.
