Video Killed the Radio Star

A few weeks ago I published an article on Wired2Fish detailing my thoughts on “shakeups” in the world of professional fishing. While forward-facing sonar wasn’t the main topic of the piece, I would have been foolish to leave it out. After all, that seems to be all anyone can talk about as well as one of the primary ways in which the three main tours have distinguished themselves. 

Despite the fact that I covered various other angles, most of the online comments were about FFS. The following are examples of some of the more pointed ones:

• “[W]atching back of heads looking at video game all day long, terrible situation.”
• “It's gotten to where most of it is boring as hell to watch anyway!”
• “[T]hose are video game guys, they have no skills and knowledge of bass fishing just watching video game all day, BORING.”
• “[Y]es sir! So sick of the video playing.”

But the one that really stood made me think the most was the following one from a reader in Minnesota:

“Why isn’t video game playing a huge National TV audience sport? Therein lies the answer.”

Ever since anglers started using 2D sonar to catch Great Lakes smallmouths vertically, the notion of “video gaming” has been used as a pejorative. As I’ve written many times before, I’m basically agnostic on whether FFS is good, bad or a mix of the two for the sport. I don’t love watching it, but in most cases I don’t love bed fishing or ledge fishing, either. I’m also not a video game fanatic, but based on what I’ve seen across both sports media and general media, I had a feeling that the commenter was a bit off. Video gaming may not be on the level of football or baseball or even golf, but esports seem to be kind of a big deal.

I checked out some stats:

• The revenue in the eSports market worldwide is projected to reach $4.8 billion (about 60% of that in the US) in 2025, and advertisers expect it to continue to grow at a rate of over 5%.
• The global eSports audience will exceed 640.8 million in 2025, including 322.7 million occasional viewers and 318.1 million dedicated fans.
• The League of Legends 2024 World Championship became the most watched eSports event of all time, with a recorded 6.86 million peak viewers. The second most viewed tournament was the League of Legends 2023 World Championship in South Korea, with 6.4 million peak viewers. There have been at least 10 other eSports events with over 3 million total viewers.

We may not like video gaming.

We may in fact think that all of the good things about fishing are absent from video gaming.

FFS may indeed turn out to be bad for the sport.

Nevertheless, it seems like a crutch or a self-fulfilling prophecy to say that any decrease in fishing’s popularity or viewership – if indeed there is any – is due to the excessive use of technology.  We need to stop making excuses and start making legitimate, fact-based arguments.