Previously, we have reported that kids these days prefer playing video games to taking part in sports. Not really any surprises there  when it's 90 ºF outside I'd rather be on the couch with the PS2 or Xbox than whacking a ball with a stick. But according to a report in the New York Times, the video game culture isn't just affecting sports participation. Viewing figures for sporting events are dropping, and video game sales are taking up the slack.

Since 2000, television broadcast ratings for almost all major sports have fallen among male viewers between 12 and 34. Even Nascar, whose ratings have generally been hailed by the industry as healthy, has suffered a modest decline, according to Nielsen Media Research. Over the same period, sales of sports video games in the United States have risen by about 34 percent, to more than $1.2 billion last year from slightly less than $900 million in 2000, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. Young men are also the core market for video games.

As technology increases to the point where video games are looking more and more realistic, the immersion factor increases, and the ability to take part in the action rather than simply watch it passively is highly appealing. The World Rally Championship, it's popularity boosted in recent years by games such as Colin McRae's Rally, introduced a new telemetry system in recent years, with an eventual goal of allowing game players online to compete virtually against the real stars. Obivously without the risk to life and limb that hurtling through a Swedish forest in the dark entails.

Now, I'm aware that correlation is not the same as causation, and that the decline in sports figures may well have other causes, but there's something tempting about playing as the Chicago Cubs and winning the World Series, rather than have a guy in the stands snatch defeat from the jaws of victory to continue nine decades of heartbreak. And after wasting my time and money at Indianapolis this past weekend, I'd love an opportunity to take to the track in a virtual F1 car, if only to repeatedly run down Max Mosely.