Do esports count as real sports? They take skill, practice and time, so they have many qualifications for being sports, but why aren’t they? According to the Oxford Dictionary, a sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Esports typically involve competition, whether team or individual, and are often used as entertainment for other players of the specific game. But, they tend to lack physical exertion which, to many, could be the deciding factor in whether something is a real sport or not. Also, many sports require specific body types. For example, volleyball players, hitters specifically, tend to be tall and have strong legs to jump high. In contrast, esports don’t require any specific body type, as all you use are your hands.
For something to be considered a sport, it should have its own unique field or court. A tennis court, baseball field and soccer field are all very distinguishable from each other and it is very easy to determine which one is which. On the other hand, esports typically take place in repurposed warehouses and are often just a stage with a few gaming setups on it and some auditorium-style seating.
It also could be said that a sport needs to have a large following to be considered a sport. In 2024, around 55 million people watched esports in total in the U.S.A. Now, that’s not the smallest viewership, but compared to a sport like American Football, which had around 123.7 million viewers for just the Superbowl, it seems pretty unpopular.
As aforementioned, sports typically require physical exertion to be considered a sport. While most sports require a lot of movement within the boundaries of its court or field, esports players are confined to the computer they are playing on which, arguably, means that they cannot be considered athletes and therefore, esports can not be considered sports.
Furthermore, most sports can be played for fun without much preparation, like football, all you need to do is a grab ball, find a few friends and establish some endzones, but with esports, you have to buy a game and qualify to be in an online tournament, which is pretty difficult to do. With most sports, you have to buy some equipment, the price will ultimately depend on the sport you’re playing, but, most of it won’t directly affect your skill or performance, with esports, on the other hand, your performance relies on the type of equipment you have. For example, if your graphics card isn’t the best, your game will lag and cause you to perform poorly, or if your monitor doesn’t have the best quality, you won’t be able to see as clearly as other players, giving them the advantage over you. You shouldn’t have to rely on the equipment you have to give you a better performance in a match, it should rely on the amount of skill and physicality you put into it.
Finally, most sports have different leagues for the different skill sets of the players, in the case of football, it has the NFL, the AFL, the XFL, the USFL, the NEFL and many others. Unless you consider different games as different leagues, esports don’t have different levels for the different amounts of skill there are. There aren’t any minor esports leagues so, unless you’re the best of the best, you have very little chance of going pro. The fact that there are no specific ways to train for them, no unique field or court, not a large following, minimal physical effort, a lack of different skilled leagues, difficulty in doing a pickup game and the fact that performance depends on equipment proves that esports should not be considered real sports.