Why Sports Games Are Growing in Popularity

Gaming is growing in popularity in all niches as a growing audience turns to the large variety of platforms and styles for its favorite choices – whether this be the rapidly expanding esports space that has seen tremendous growth in a relatively short period of time, mobile classics that allow gaming online for a variety of different niches, or recently the growing trend for games replicating traditional sporting to have seen unexpected growth and interest from a wider variety of players. What is it that’s helping the growth of sports games, and are they likely to see continued popularity?

Part of the growth has come from the difficulty for sporting over the past two years with the global health pandemic – initially the cancellation and postponement of many sports led to fans seeking out alternatives and gaming was one of the few outlets that were still running mostly uninterrupted with online games going ahead as usual. Soccer from FIFA and Basketball from NBA2K were amongst the most popular as the sporting bodies got directly involved in the promotion of the games and the teams would franchise esports teams in the games directly too but weren’t the most successful even with the sport.

That crown instead goes to motorsports, NASCAR drivers, Formula 1 drivers, and those from other disciplines too helped put online sports games on the map as games like iRacing were able to pull in huge viewer and follower numbers and have led to something of a growing trend for racing simulators as a whole – big names like Lando Norris and Max Verstappen still regularly take part in online races and livestream when they do and has helped continue the success found back in 2020 and has helped both NASCAR and F1 grow its viewership outside of gaming too.

Newer platforms that have allowed graphics and gameplay to evolve, different peripherals that have given a more tactile experience, and direct input from teams and organizing bodies will help these sports titles to thrive further too, numbers are only growing and funding is increasing too and given the likelihood that these will be the types of games chosen to represent a more global stage with the potential for gaming to be part of the Olympics in the future, with simulation gear improving and the possibility for VR tech and similar to emerge too the next step may be something more tactile in games like football, and a more interactive way to play these games.