Watching video games can be just as fun as playing them

What do you call a person who likes video games but doesn’t play video games?

It might seem silly, but let’s talk.

In sports, it’s normal to like a thing without doing a thing. Take basketball. We’ve got:

• Professional basketball players
• Casual basketball players 
• And basketball fans, who attend or watch games

So it follows that with video games, there are:

• Professional esports players
• Gamers
• And games fans, who attend or watch games

Except that last one sounds off. I’ve never heard anyone call themselves a “games fan” before. But you could hear someone say “Oh, I’m a basketball fan!” or “I like basketball!” without automatically assuming they play b-ball. How they express their fandom is still up in the air.

That said, everyone who likes video games plays games… right?

Not really. Maybe that was the case when video games first emerged, but plenty of people these days only watch video games.

Both video games and sports are designed to be played, but can also be enjoyable for spectators. Millions of people watch other people play video games on Twitch or YouTube every day. Last year, the world saw the most watched esports event of all time — the 2023 League of Legends World Championships, which peaked at 6.4 million viewers.

In this video, Christina Gayton goes into what makes watching video games enjoyable, how mirror neurons affect our spectating experience, and what we should call these “game fans.”