Why do men like sports more than women?

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Why do men like sports more than women? This is a common question that continues to come to our minds everytime we see a typical entertaining activity preferred by men and a typical entertaining activity preferred mostly by women. And while in the last years, sports viewership by females has increased much, a considerably big gap between the two genders when it comes to watching sports, remains. 

What is it that makes sports more interesting and appealing to men? And what is it that makes sports less attractive to women?

Taking some statistical data for Hungary, we explore how differently sports are viewed by males and females. 

For men, sports are an absolute means of entertainment and fun. Men like to get together, organize a sports’ night and watch games with their friends while discussing, analyzing or betting on these games at sportfogadás. A recent study illustrated that although nearly 48% of Hungarians are not active in some sports or don’t have any direct involvement with a specific sport, the sport viewership rates are very high. 

In fact, more than 80% of men consume sports as an audience. Whether actively involved in sports or non-involved with sports, entertainment, enjoyment and excitement are the three most important reasons why fans like to watch sports, while socialization – being with friends, interacting and communicating – is also cited as a critical factor that makes sports’ watching a very likable activity. 

Getting with other people, forming groups of friends, creating new friends, talking about both sports and non-sports related subjects as well as communicating in more loose ways are seen as the most important reasons that make sports’ watching so popular among men. 

Another very important issue in explaining why men like to watch sports more than women is the involvement of technology in the entire activity. Men are also fond of the supporting aspects surrounding the entire habit of watching a sports game. For example, being able to watch a sport event on a big screen TV, a high-tech system with very high resolution is one really important motivating factor. Men generally place much more emphasis on such things as technology in their experiences and watching sports could not be an exception to this. 

One very interesting thing regarding the distinction between males and females when it comes to sports viewership has to do with the fact that men watch more sports even when the events involve female sports. In fact, men like to watch sports more than women even in the female sports segments – such as female basketball, volleyball, tennis or any other sport. 

And then it is also the competitive nature of males that drives greater interest in sports viewership. Men by nature are more competitive and they value dominance, victory and distinction. Watching sports games and sports events in general, satisfies one of their primary needs, which is none other than to applaud superiority.

On the other hand, women tend to find less attractive the overall sports’ viewership culture. Statistical evidence suggests that women find less entertaining and less fun the whole thing of watching sports and they don’t associate it with socialization or a very pleasing experience, as men do. Women have less interest in sports which are more aggressive and offensive – as opposed to men. 

More on this, women like family gatherings or friends’ gatherings to be around events that are not so competitive. They like to agree more than they like to disagree! And above all, women like to talk about social issues when getting together with others. 

But lately there has been a growing number of women who follow and watch sports, not in the same systematic, invested manner that men do, but all enthusiastically and willingly, something which might at some point in the future make sports viewership more homogeneous amongst the two genders.