For those of a certain age, getting your head around the popularity of ‘watch-along’ sports streams on platforms like YouTube is still challenging. By ‘watch-along,’ we refer to the practice of people tuning in to watch a popular streamer watch a sports game. To an extent, it feels that something is removed from the experience as a sports fan and that it is no longer intimate between you and your team.
However, this is the reality of the 2020s. The consumption of live sports is no longer a linear experience. Right now, we are in the middle of the NFL Playoffs, trundling toward Super Bowl LIX, yet the long-held assumption that meant that we would all be huddled around television for the games is not as fixed as it once was. The centre of gravity is now online, particularly in social media.
More options to engage in sports
Of course, it’s widely accepted that we engage with sports in different ways than in the past. When was the last time you watched a sports game without a phone in your hand, for example? It’s not a criticism, simply a statement that the ways we engage have changed. Some of this feels natural and normal, as you may check out live statistics, place live sports bets, or play Fantasy Pick’em before a big NFL game. But in other ways, sports have become something that you interact with rather than watch. And much of it is down to social media.
Elon Musk likes to talk about X (formerly Twitter) as an organic stream of human consciousness – the world’s town square. He is partly correct. Despite changes to the platform, it remains the best source of instant news, including sports news. We can see this in statistics as traffic spikes during big sporting events like the FIFA World Cup Final and the Super Bowl. The 2022 World Cup Final set records for engagement on Twitter (as it was still called back then), and Musk was keen to trumpet that fact. Around 24,000 tweets per second were sent during the World Cup Final, highlighting how fans were experiencing the event.
Sports teams have embraced the change
However, The critical shift has not come from the platforms but from sports teams and organizations. In the past, they used to guard their footage jealously, taking down clips of essential plays and scores, for instance. Now, the reverse is true. You can be sure that the first touchdown of Super Bowl LIX will be on X, YouTube, Instagram, etc., within seconds of it happening live. This is useful for those who don’t have access to the game, but it is also becoming a meaningful way to engage those who do.
In a sense, what is happening is that a big game is not something you talk about around the proverbial water cooler at work the next day; it is something that happens in the ‘now,’ which you feel compelled to interact with while it is happening. The allure is unmistakable, as social media will provide unique insights, such as analysis of controversial incidents not picked up by television commentators. It provides a broader lens from which to view a game. Although, as we mentioned, it might mean something is missing.
The interesting aspect is perhaps where we go next. People have been talking about VR as the next big thing in entertainment for years now, and it always seems to be something that will happen tomorrow. Yet, sports organizations constantly push for new ways for fans to engage beyond the traditional television broadcast. They make “simultaneous viewing” (watching sports on different screens), but more innovations may follow.
