More People Watched Major League Gaming Online Than the NFL Draft

[Chamale]

Weird, I watch NBA basketball more than I watch MLG, but I don't do much of either.

 

[NinjaTigerXIII]

Its been on ESPN for quite a while now actually, or at least the website.

Seriously? Thats awesome! But I would love to see it on my actual TV though, poor thing doesn't get used unless I'm playing video games.

 

[ScoopMeister]

Yes well no one outside of America really cares about NBA, whereas video games are loved in many countries.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Its been on ESPN for quite a while now actually, or at least the website.

Seriously? Thats awesome! But I would love to see it on my actual TV though, poor thing doesn't get used unless I'm playing video games.

It airs on several different stations and every now and again, on ESPN itself. Its been airing on TV at least since 2006 and I remember that because I remember watching the Halo 2 MLG final on TV.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

I never really got how there's such a thing as Major League Anything. I feel the most boring thing ever is watching someone play something. I mean, wouldn't you want to do it yourself? Hell, during E3, I could only last around 5 minutes watching game play before I clicked another video

I guess this is why I play sports but don't watch 'em on tv.

 

[cobra_ky]

It's a lot closer this way, but honestly, that still ain't too shabby at all. For comparison, last night's NBA finals Game 6 reportedly clocked in 17.2 million viewers [http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/06/13/2011-nba-finals-on-abc-second-most-viewed-since-2004/95475/]. MLG still comes out ahead here, and even though you could argue that these numbers are fudged thanks to multiple streams broadcasting at once, it has every right to be proud of its numbers.

You've misread the NBA statistics. 17.2 million was the viewership averaged across the entire six game series. According to the article you linked, Game 6 last night delivered 23.5 million viewers, which is more than MLG was able to muster over the entire three day event.

Good try though!

 

[Twilight_guy]

I think we need official rules on what qualifies as a sport. I considering gaming in the same category as chess. Is chess a sport? (Honestly, I'm not sure on this one). Gaming a chess are both primarily mental with little physical exertion. This falls into the same challenge as art in a way though since both are nebulous bullshit terms with no hard definition. Of course I don't know about MLG since being art gives game legitimacy as a side-effect but being a sport gets them... sponsors? I dunno.

I watch professional go players (go is like if checkers and chess had a lovechild, although it is without a doubt more strategy based than checkers and many believe it is deeper than chess).

I imagine watching strategy games like starcraft are similar to me watching pro go players. Not sure if it's a sport, but other countries take go very seriously -second most played board game.

According to wikipedia go can be a sport, not really sure if that means anything to you though :]

That's why I think we need to establish some rules. What makes a sport? What's it about? Is it physical exertion, team play, mental strategy, what? There are lots of things that are "games" and "sports" like football(both) or baseball but what qualifies a thing as a "sport"?

 

[NightlyNews]

I think we need official rules on what qualifies as a sport. I considering gaming in the same category as chess. Is chess a sport? (Honestly, I'm not sure on this one). Gaming a chess are both primarily mental with little physical exertion. This falls into the same challenge as art in a way though since both are nebulous bullshit terms with no hard definition. Of course I don't know about MLG since being art gives game legitimacy as a side-effect but being a sport gets them... sponsors? I dunno.

I watch professional go players (go is like if checkers and chess had a lovechild, although it is without a doubt more strategy based than checkers and many believe it is deeper than chess).

I imagine watching strategy games like starcraft are similar to me watching pro go players. Not sure if it's a sport, but other countries take go very seriously -second most played board game.

According to wikipedia go can be a sport, not really sure if that means anything to you though :]

That's why I think we need to establish some rules. What makes a sport? What's it about? Is it physical exertion, team play, mental strategy, what? There are lots of things that are "games" and "sports" like football(both) or baseball but what qualifies a thing as a "sport"?

Yea I agree. Wikipedia says "A sport is an organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means." But, that's so broad I would be hard pressed to find many activities that wouldn't be considered sports.

Hell some jobs could be classified sports by that definition, the only classification that would be hard to meet would be entertaining. Pimp my rides and other shows have shown that mechanic and similar jobs could be classified as a sport by that definition.

 

[Popido]

Thats quite lot considering that I thought professional gaming died with PC gaming.

not_sure_if_serious.jpg

Partially. The old games used to be new then. Now its pretty retro.

 

[Jegsimmons]

meh, basketball is an overrated sport anyway.

i'm not surprised.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

"...from 164 countries watching four streams over the three-day competition."

I hate to be that guy, but being an international thing and streaming an event tend to net you more folks then a sport that is only widely followed in the west. Plus, your counting all the viewers from a 3-day event and comparing it to one game, which went late into Sunday night and wasn't all that exciting. Most people in the east coast we're probably turning off their televisions by the time the game went into the 3rd quarter. If Miami had won that game, I can guarantee you this, the MLG would not have come close to the amount of viewers who would watch game 7.

In short, no, the MLG did not have more viewers then the NBA Finals, their entire event had more viewers then game 6, but that's it. The MLG did have more viewers then the NFL draft and I will give them credit for that one.

I'll be that guy too. Perhaps if we added all viewership from every finals game it would be a closer comparison. With that being said and being a Dallas native, THE MAVS ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!! Never thought I'd live to see the day and to see it done the way it was, is the ultimate vengeance and vindication.

You have no idea how relieved I was to see them come out on top. I absolutely hate Lebron and Dwayne and I honestly believed the Mavericks worked harder for their trip to the finals. You guys sweeped the Lakers. As a Boston fan, I have to give you guys credit for that.

 

[cobra_ky]

And if you take the average over the course of the 6 games and ad it up you will see that the finals were witnessed by over 103 million people!

Not exactly, because plenty of viewers watched more than one game.

You have no idea how relieved I was to see them come out on top. I absolutely hate Lebron and Dwayne and I honestly believed the Mavericks worked harder for their trip to the finals. You guys sweeped the Lakers. As a Boston fan, I have to give you guys credit for that.

as a fellow C's fan i have to agree. I've got no particular beef with Wade, and i can forgive Lebron now that i know that Boston was the reason Lebron decided to leave Cleveland and ruin his life. The Mavs just played hard, though, and they deserved to win to make up for 2006.

 

[John Funk]

It's a lot closer this way, but honestly, that still ain't too shabby at all. For comparison, last night's NBA finals Game 6 reportedly clocked in 17.2 million viewers [http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/06/13/2011-nba-finals-on-abc-second-most-viewed-since-2004/95475/]. MLG still comes out ahead here, and even though you could argue that these numbers are fudged thanks to multiple streams broadcasting at once, it has every right to be proud of its numbers.

You've misread the NBA statistics. 17.2 million was the viewership averaged across the entire six game series. According to the article you linked, Game 6 last night delivered 23.5 million viewers, which is more than MLG was able to muster over the entire three day event.

Good try though!

That's true. Corrected.

 

[The Great JT]

Hm, let's see, one-on-one Starcraft tournament where strategies have to be made up on the fly and matches could go either playing for a shiny piece of metal way versus two boring basketball teams no one cares about playing for a shiny piece of metal. Yeah, I'd go with the MLG tourney too.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

There's a spelling error:

You have MLG spelled as MLB at the end of the third paragraph.