Traditional Sports Losing Ground to Digital Competition – Wall Street Journal

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.
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’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.
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’s TBS and Walt Disney Co.
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’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.
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’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