Comcast Corp.’s NBC Sports on Wednesday said it would televise an esports tournament later this summer, the latest broadcaster turning to competitive videogaming to grow viewership at a time when many consumers are cutting the cord.

The cable network hopes a tournament built around a popular quirky game called “Rocket League” will attract hard-to-reach viewers—particularly younger males—who increasingly are ditching cable subscriptions for live-streaming services such as Netflix Inc.

NBC Sports is investing in the low millions of dollars on the initiative, said Rob Simmelkjaer, senior vice president of NBC Sports Ventures, in an interview this week. “We look at emerging areas of sports,” he said. “Esports has been something tough to ignore.”

This year, about 191 million people world-wide are expected to watch an esports contest at least once a month, more than double the number in 2012, according to Newzoo BV. By 2020, the research firm expects that viewership to climb to 286 million.

Most people watch online, though, and getting those viewers to find esports programming on the TV has been a challenge.


Walt Disney Co. ’s ESPN and Time Warner Inc.’s TBS have aired esports for more than a year, to modest ratings. TBS’s Friday night show “Eleague,” for example, has averaged 256,000 viewers this year, down from 272,000 in 2016, according to Nielsen.

Spokesmen for ESPN and TBS said ratings have been in line with expectations, and that esports on TV is still relatively new. Like ESPN and TBS, NBC Sports plans to live stream its tournament online as well to reach as many viewers as possible.

ESPN and TBS say web viewership has been strong. The finale of a weeklong contest for TBS’s “Eleague” attracted more than one million concurrent streams when it aired live in January on Amazon.com’s Twitch, a record for a single channel on the video service. TBS plans to air more esports in the fall, including a championship around a new superhero-fighting game called “Injustice 2.”

Esports could still thrive on TV if contests involving more popular games are aired, Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz said. “I don’t know that we’ve had tier 1 esports events on TV yet,” he said.


NBC Sports Network is in about 85 million homes, while its regional networks span about half as many households. The network hopes to differentiate its esports broadcast from the usual shooter or war-battle games with “Rocket League,” a mashup of soccer and auto racing from Psyonix Inc. that was a top seller on Sony Corp.’s PlayStation store last year.

After a round of qualifiers in July, TV coverage will kick off on weekends in August on the regional networks. The tournament will conclude with a championship aired on the national network and in several countries abroad.

The network also plans to open its tournament to people of all skill levels in the U.S. and Europe, rather than just professional teams. The total prize pool is $100,000, NBC Sports said.

“We want to find new esports stars,” Mr. Simmelkjaer said. “There’s an opportunity for new people to come out of the woodwork.”


Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com