What defines a sport? Is it something that involves physical exercise? Something that involves mental exercise? Something that you practice? Is it the viewership? Is it the amount of sponsors?

Should gaming be considered a sport?

The United States, China, the United Kingdom, South Korea and many other countries have recognized gaming as a sport. This line of sports is called eSports and is not a single game, but it is made up of many popular games, such as League of Legends, Dota 2, Smite and countless more.

Robert Morris University in Illinois is the first school in the United States to offer scholarships for gaming and is one of more than 100 colleges and universities with competitive eSports teams.

The competition is fierce to the degree that some gamers are able to make a living at it. There is a regular season for each of the popular games, as there would be a regular season for football, in which professional gamers play for money and live in a ‘gaming house’ with their teams.

Of these houses, professionals will spend five to nine hours each day, seven days a week, honing their skills in preparation for their next game or tournament. By comparison, the average professional basketball player trains around five to six hours a day, six days a week.

There is another way to make a living through gaming other than becoming part of a professional team.

Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez is 24 years old and makes about $950,000 per year. He owns a line of gaming gear and is a regular streamer on Twitch.tv, which is a live-streaming video platform where anyone can view gamers streaming their games.

If you wonder who in the world would waste time watching people click buttons on fancy light-up keyboards and mice, the 2013 League of Legends World Championship attracted 32 million online viewers, more than double baseball’s World Series and even trumping game seven of basketball’s NBA Finals.

The 2014 League of Legends World Championship attracted 40,000 fans to Sangam Stadium in Seoul.

eSports is still a growing market and similar to many sports teams, has sponsors.

There are both big and small companies exploring the new market of gaming such as Coca-Cola, Intel, Alienware, Red Bull and Nissan.

So, are video games a sport or a hobby?

I am a gamer on an amateur League of Legends team, and I think that video games are not a sport in the sense that we have come to think of it.

The term sport has been associated to anything with physical activity.

With this said, I believe that gaming is a mental sport similar to chess. While in many European countries chess is considered a sport, in the United States, people of this day and age do not agree with that. This leaves us with the original question – what should gaming be considered? A sport or a hobby?