Gaming is redefining how sports platforms retain fans
Live sports is beginning to compete for attention against platforms designed to sustain continuous interaction and ongoing audience engagement.
The gaming industry is shaping new dynamics around retention, community and interactivity that are starting to influence streaming and sports media strategies.
By: Kevin Janzen, CEO of the Gaming and EdTech AI Studio at Globant.
Every four years, the FIFA World Cup captures global attention like the biggest global gaming release, bringing together a worldwide audience on a fixed date with immediate cultural impact.
This year, FIFA estimates that more than five billion people will watch the World Cup at some point, making it one of the most-watched events in history.
It’s the closest equivalent to a global game launch. But while both generate massive peaks of attention, only one is designed to sustain that attention over time.
Gaming is built as a continuous system designed to maximize frequency of use, retention and interaction over time. Live sports, by contrast, remains optimized for scheduled viewing windows, where attention peaks during the match and drops immediately after it ends.
For product leaders in the streaming industry and sports media executives responsible for retention and average revenue per user (ARPU), the opportunity is not to change the live event itself, but to capture audiences before and after it.
Gaming solved retention. Sports still hasn’t.
Today’s audiences expect to interact, not just watch. They also expect to reconnect whenever they want, not only when an event is live.
The gaming industry not only responds to those expectations — it defines them.
The central difference is persistence: the ability to keep users returning repeatedly rather than capturing them only once. Gaming is on-demand by design, allowing players to connect at any moment, progress within the content and remain engaged beyond a single event.
Live sports, meanwhile, is inherently time-dependent. Engagement is tied to a schedule and, once the match ends, fan attention naturally declines until the next event.
That persistence is reinforced through interactivity. In gaming environments, instead of remaining confined to the stands as passive spectators, users become active participants. When a player discovers a winning strategy, others can replicate it instantly, turning engagement into participation.
Users can also contribute to shaping the experience. According to Bain, 79% of gamers have played titles that include user-generated content, blurring the line between audience and participant.
Interaction becomes iterative, shaped by experimentation and personal outcomes rather than a fixed viewing experience.
Platforms such as Twitch and Discord extend that interaction beyond gameplay itself, transforming consumption into an always-on social layer where audiences co-create experiences in real time.
Users can interact directly with creators and with one another, and even influence game development, building connections that extend beyond a single session.
Sustained user return also depends on providing a clear reason to come back. Mechanics such as battle passes, limited-time events and progression systems create daily incentives that extend well beyond the initial launch. Progression, community and rewards combine to sustain engagement over time.
As these expectations become more established, live sports is no longer competing only with other broadcasts, but with interactive platforms.
How sports can capture attention beyond the final whistle.
Live sports does not need to become a copy of gaming. But it can adopt the principles that make gaming environments continuous, extending the experience around events without altering their essence.
1. Think beyond the event itself.
Sustained engagement in gaming emerges from how content is structured to encourage users to return repeatedly. Updates, challenges and evolving narratives give players reasons to come back long after launch.
Live sports already has these ingredients, but they are not connected. Pre-event anticipation, live broadcasts and post-event content can be integrated into a continuous experience where each stage builds on the previous one.
This is reflected in features such as dynamic replays, multi-angle analysis and simulations of alternative plays that extend the lifespan of a moment. The experience does not end with the final whistle; it continues to evolve.
Adding richer data and context also makes post-match content more personalized and immersive, transforming it from a static recap into a continuation of the narrative.
2. Turn spectators into participants.
Interactivity transforms passive consumption into active participation. Instead of simply watching, audiences can react in real time, influence their experience and define how they engage with content.
Live sports can incorporate these layers without changing the game itself. Real-time predictions, interactive on-screen features — such as Amazon Prime Video’s X-Ray function — and alternative viewing modes allow fans to make decisions alongside the action, whether anticipating outcomes or personalizing how they follow the match.
Features such as live trivia and dynamic betting experiences further expand engagement, creating touchpoints before, during and after the game.
Instead of tuning in once, fans have reasons to return, track outcomes and remain connected.
3. Bring fan communities closer to the experience.
Both gaming and sports thrive on community. Fans gather on platforms such as Reddit, X, Twitch and Discord to discuss performances, relive key moments and follow evolving storylines.
The next step is expanding the spaces where those behaviors intersect. Formats such as UFC’s game-inspired experiences — where fans can simulate matchups and interact with alternative scenarios — extend the conversation beyond the live event, giving audiences something to engage with between matches.
By integrating these formats into the core experience, fans gain constant reasons to return. They no longer appear only for live matches, but come back to see how simulations evolve and remain part of the conversation.
From isolated events to living ecosystems.
Live events will always remain the heart of sports and streaming platforms. They create shared moments at scale. And while scale generates attention, platforms generate ongoing engagement.
Gaming has demonstrated that sustained engagement comes from systems designed for continuity and audience participation.
To fully capitalize on the attention generated by live events, platforms must stop treating them as endpoints and start building ecosystems around them.
Think about a last-minute goal: today, it creates a spike in viewership. Tomorrow, it could evolve into hours of continuous engagement — if the infrastructure exists to sustain it.
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