What do you call someone who likes video games but doesn’t play video games?
It may sound crazy, but let’s talk.
In sports it is normal to like something without doing anything. Take basketball. We have:
It follows that in video games there is:
Except that last one sounds weird. I’ve never heard anyone call themselves a “games fan.” But you might hear someone say “Oh, I’m a basketball fan!” or “I love basketball!” and not automatically assume they play basketball. How they express their fandom is still uncertain.
That being said, anyone who i like video games plays games… right?
Not really. Maybe that was the case when video games first came out, but these days there are a lot of people who only watching video games.
Both video games and sports are designed to be played, but they can also be fun to watch. Millions of people watch other people play video games every day on Twitch or YouTube. Last year saw the most watched esports event of all time worldwide — the 2023 League of Legends World Championship, which peaked at 6.4 million viewers.
In this video, Christina Gayton discusses what makes watching video games so enjoyable, how mirror neurons influence our viewing experience, and what we should call these “game fans.”