**tl;dr – Watching someone else play video games is no different than watching someone else play a sport. In both cases, the viewer is engaging in a shared love for the game that they're watching – whether they're actually a fellow player or not.** I don't know how many times I've heard people say, "I don't see how you can sit there and watch someone play video games all day. Why don't you just play the game yourself?" My immediate response is always, "I don't see how you can sit there and watch sports all day. Why don't you go out and play the game yourself?" There are a multitude of reasons why we don't "just play the game ourselves." Maybe we share a genuine love and interest in the game and how other people play it. Maybe we look up to celebrity players who can do things normal players can only dream of doing. Or maybe we're just plain bad at the game, and we wanna live vicariously through people who actually halfway know what they're doing. Note that I didn't distinguish what kind of game I was talking about in that last paragraph. Also note that I didn’t need to, because video games and sports are one and the same – they're *games*.

**TL;DR - Esports should be considered a sport or at least recognized as a competitive event. Biases against videogames are probably what prevents most of society from considering them actual sports despite their increasing global viewership.** I agree sports and video games have a lot of similarities and esports are growing in viewership now more than ever. Since video games are a much more recent phenomenon it's taking a bit longer for people to acknowledge esports potential. Many people still have some opinions and biases against videogames and that includes many media outlets that attempt to reinforce negative beliefs, or just cannot consider esports as something more than just a bunch of people pushing buttons and looking at a screen [1]. Here is a clip of sports commentators laughing at esports from a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Box01YzekaQ&feature=emb_title Public opinion is shifting and more people are legitimizing esports as a sport or at least a competitive event. A quick reminder that esports has a whopping 500 million total viewership globally (far more than American football) [2], so if we consider videogames a sport it would roughly have the same viewership as basketball and would surpass rugby and golf [3]. [1] Mainstream Media: A Love-Hate Relationship With eSports https://www.criticalhit.net/gaming/mainstream-media-love-hate-relationship-esports/ [2] Esports Is Filling The Programming Void https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2020/04/21/esports-is-filling-the-programming-void/?sh=374bb779533b [3] ESPORTS VIEWERSHIP VS. SPORTS IN 2020 https://www.roundhillinvestments.com/research/esports/esports-viewership-vs-sports

**tl;dr Logistically esports can be consider real sports, however, when considering factors such as physical exertion their association becomes tenuous.** I take this opinion really to argue that video games, specifically esports, can be considered real sports with the consequence being that the act of watching in both is the same. Upon first glance it is easy to dismiss the concept of esports but the facts and figures are truly astounding. In the UK alone there are around 3.1 million esports enthusiasts and a further 3.4 million viewers. Globally, there exists about 148 million gamers along with their 144 million watchers. With the esports economy generating about $500 million in 2016, it is clear that the industry should no longer be ridiculed but admired. There logistical operations of esports seem to be extremely similar to traditional sports as they can have teams, training camps, player association, sports psychologists, leagues, cups, power rankings, commentators and significantly, fans – those who watch and obsess over the video games. The Paris 2024 Games were seriously considering the inclusion of esports as a demonstration event marking their first sense of involvement in Olympic Games. Moreover, they are confirmed to be included as medal events in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games are now also featuring esports. However, financially, esports are still far off competing with traditional sports as European football, for example, generates $30 billion each year and conceptually, their association as a sport is largely tenuous. Despite claims of hand-eye coordination and necessity of training, it is hard to perceive esports alongside traditional ones. The present definitions of ‘sport’ includes ‘an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess’ with specific examples of ‘racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling and wrestling’, as well as, ‘an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or a team competes against another or other for entertainment’. Therefore, although esports may technically be considered sports, they are not yet socially considered so. Anekal, Manny (2019). ‘Why Esports Are Real Sports’, *Linkedin*. Accessible at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-esports-real-sports-manny-anekal/ The Editors (2020). ‘Just how big is esports?’, *British Esports Association*. Accessible at: https://britishesports.org/news/just-how-big-is-esports-here-are-10-facts-that-illustrate-its-growth/ Steinberg, Leigh (2018). ‘What defines a ‘Sport’, *Forbes*. Accessible at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/leighsteinberg/2018/07/28/what-defines-a-sport/?sh=13dd8f722d66

It's like watching a game of chess, it's not a sport. They just called it e-sports because it sounds more legitimate, it should still be called professional gaming.