{"id":956814,"date":"2026-01-02T04:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=445473"},"modified":"2026-01-02T04:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:26:26","slug":"watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Watching video games can be just as fun as playing them"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Christina in front of an old CRT TV with an image of BioShock on it\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"Image: 2K Games\/Polygon\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them.jpg\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">What do you call a person who likes video games but doesn\u2019t play video games?<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">It might seem silly, but let\u2019s talk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">In sports, it\u2019s normal to like a thing without doing a thing. Take basketball. We\u2019ve got:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Professional basketball players<\/li>\n<li>Casual basketball players&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>And basketball fans, who attend or watch games<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">So it follows that with video games, there are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Professional esports players<\/li>\n<li>Gamers<\/li>\n<li>And games fans, who attend or watch games<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Except that last one sounds off. I\u2019ve never heard anyone call themselves a \u201cgames fan\u201d before. But you could hear someone say \u201cOh, I\u2019m a basketball fan!\u201d or \u201cI like basketball!\u201d without automatically assuming they play b-ball. How they express their fandom is still up in the air.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">That said, everyone who <em>likes<\/em> video games <em>plays<\/em> games\u2026 right?<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Not really. Maybe that was the case when video games first emerged, but plenty of people these days <em>only<\/em> watch video games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">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. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/esports\/league-of-legends\/worlds-2023-viewership-record\">Last year, the world saw the most watched esports event of all time<\/a> \u2014 the 2023 League of Legends World Championships, which peaked at 6.4 million viewers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">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 \u201cgame fans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/gaming\/445473\/spectating-video-games-fun-video\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do you call a person who likes video games but doesn\u2019t play video games? It might seem silly, but let\u2019s talk. In sports, it\u2019s normal to like a thing without doing a thing. Take basketball. We\u2019ve got: Professional basketball players Casual basketball players&nbsp; 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\u2019ve never heard anyone call themselves a \u201cgames fan\u201d before. But you could hear someone say \u201cOh, I\u2019m a basketball fan!\u201d or \u201cI like basketball!\u201d without automatically assuming they play b-ball. How they express their fandom is still up in the air. That said, everyone who&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":956815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-956814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Watching video games can be just as fun as playing them | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What do you call a person who likes video games but doesn\u2019t play video games? It might seem silly, but let\u2019s talk. In sports, it\u2019s normal to like a thing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watching video games can be just as fun as playing them | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What do you call a person who likes video games but doesn\u2019t play video games? It might seem silly, but let\u2019s talk. In sports, it\u2019s normal to like a thing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-02T04:26:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Watching video games can be just as fun as playing them\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-02T04:26:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":256,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/09\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Polygon\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\\\/\",\"name\":\"Watching video games can be just as fun as playing them | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/09\\\/watching-video-games-can-be-just-as-fun-as-playing-them.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-02T04:26:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"What do you call a person who likes video games but doesn\u2019t play video games? 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