Your heart races before you know what’s happening. You shout for (sometimes at) your favorite team. It’s thrilling, passionate, and completely unfiltered. Live sport gives you that feeling. Yet in an age dominated by sporting highlights, replays, spoilers, and Netflix-style access to everything whenever we want it, more of us than ever watch sports after the fact.
Does watching the game after actually diminish the experience, though? Are we just nostalgic for the days when we used to watch everything live? Truthfully, it’s a little bit of both.
Uncertainty
When watching sports live, you don’t know what’s going to happen next. At the beginning of a game, nobody knows who is going to win or who is going to choke. Moments that live on as iconic highlights can turn into lowlights if they don’t pan out… the final 30 seconds haven’t been written yet.
Every close score sends you into a frenzy because you don’t know what will happen. Every incredible comeback feels larger than life. Nobody wants to miss these moments by looking away.
You don’t get that suspense from watching recorded games. Sure, you can avoid the final score, but your brain inherently knows there’s an ending somewhere. The suspense is artificial, and it just isn’t the same.
Community
Sport has always been communal. Whether you’re watching by yourself or with friends, there’s something about knowing other people all over the world are watching simultaneously that pumps up the stakes.
There’s an instant community forged when a big play happens live. Everyone is sending messages, posting on social media, and high-fiving strangers in pubs. We remember those moments so clearly because we recall how we reacted around other people.
Delaying watching sports turns those communal moments into individual ones. There’s no sense of excitement and awe when you’re the only one watching. Sharing the experience with others, after the game has happened live, can feel special.
Of course, watching sports on your own can still be enjoyable. Particularly if you check in with sites like Ask Gamblers UK, where you can see live scores and betting odds while also reading news about matches, which fosters a sense of community. It’s just a nicer experience.
Spoilers
Speaking of knowing how things turn out, there’s the obvious hurdle of trying to avoid spoilers. It can be easy to avoid seeing the score if you stay off your phone and ignore social media, but you live in a world where friends, family, coworkers, and strangers can’t always remember you’re watching at a later date.
Once you know what happened, you’re no longer watching a sports event to see how it turns out. You’re watching it to see the specifics of how it turns out. Try telling that to someone who just missed Game 7 of the NBA Finals on a Sunday night.
Sure, comebacks can still feel magical. Late game winners can still sting. But they lose a certain magic when you’re expecting them.
Lack of Focus
What else are you doing when watching sports live? Nothing, besides enjoying beer and snacks, and time with your friends. While it can be difficult to pay attention to everything happening during a close game or a NASCAR race, your attention is piqued because you don’t want to miss those potential jaw-dropping moments.
You’ll find yourself watching sports after waiting with half an eye on your television. You’re checking social media. You’re getting up to refill your drink. The live sport demands your attention in a way that recordings simply can’t.
There Are Always Exceptions
That being said, not all sports take away from watching after the fact. Games can be replayed. Classic games can be appreciated. Monumental moments live in history no matter when you watch them.
In fact, sometimes knowing how things turn out can allow you to appreciate the moments that led to it. You can soak in the full performance with the knowledge of its importance.
Life Happens
Modern life doesn’t always give you space for watching sports live. Whether you live in a different time zone, have a busy work schedule, or share custody of your kids on the weekends, watching live just isn’t feasible sometimes.
At a certain point, watching at a later date is better than not watching at all.
Highlights Aren’t Live TV
If you want to know how society changed how we watch sports, look no further than YouTube playlists and DVR skip-forward buttons. We live in a world where we can watch every highlight of every game without watching any of the lowlights.
For a lot of people, that’s all they care to watch. Important moments happen all day, every day. Great goals. Incredible knockouts. Last-second runners. If you’re content getting your sports fix from a highlights reel, nothing will change how you watch sports.
It Depends on You
It all comes down to why you watch sports. If you’re watching for the thrill, the communal feelings of happiness (or sadness), and an instant adrenaline rush, there’s no replacing watching sports live.
If you watch to appreciate the talent, analyze deeper, or simply enjoy the game you love, nothing stops you from soaking in every last play of your favorite sport after the fact.
Different people will prioritize one over the other. Some people don’t care when they watch as long as they’re watching. A lot of us fall somewhere in the middle without even realizing it.
So, is there something special about watching sports live that we lose when watching at a later date? Yes and no. Aspects like suspense and community are more thrilling when experienced in real time. That’s no secret.
However, just because you don’t watch live doesn’t mean you’re missing out. You’re just watching sports differently. Sport is wonderful that way… it caters to the die-hard fans who binge-watch recorded games just as much as it does casual fans who catch the highlights.
