The sports genre of video gaming was the industry's second most popular last year, and it will likely finish in a similarly high spot in 2021. The genre is predominantly led by licensed sporting titles, such as Electronic Arts' FIFA and Madden franchises, as well as 2K Sports' NBA 2K. These three franchises have two things in common: they feature licensed teams, and they all have a simulation style of gameplay, emphasizing realism.
The dominance of licensed sports games can make it difficult for unlicensed sports games to be successful. Many studios have opted to invent a new sport to combat this rather than try to emulate a real one without possessing official licensing. The upcoming games all feature made-up sports, but that doesn't stop them from being great fun to play.
10 Rocket League
Psyonix's Rocket League is a prime example of how successful a sports game can be, despite it not featuring a real activity. Rocket League's rules are simple, score more goals than the opponent(s) by putting the ball in their goal. However, the game's simplicity is soon diminished when the rocket-powered cars are added to the mix.
Rocket League is a great example of a game that is easy to pick up and play but brutally difficult to master. This depth to the gameplay is part of the game's success, as it can be enjoyed by both casual and hardcore gamers.
9 Star Wars Episode I: Racer
Podracing is one of the most famous fantasy sports in all media, so it's no surprise that a tie-in game has been released. Star Wars Episode I: Racer was initially released in May 1999, the same month that Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace hit theatres. Although this implies that the game had a rushed development cycle like many movie tie-in games do, it surprisingly turned out to be a solid racer.
Star Wars Episode I: Racer's gameplay is fast and action-pact, with plenty of shortcuts in the tracks and upgrades and unlockables available to give the game extra depth.
8 Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe was initially released in 1990 on the Atari ST before coming to multiple platforms in the coming years, including Game Boy Advance, Commodore 64, and Sega Mega Drive. The game depicts a violent, cyberpunk sport, similar to the one depicted in Norman Jewison's Rollerball.
Speedball isn't likely to become a real sport any time soon, as players don't just gain points by scoring a goal; they also gain them for injuring a player on the opposing team.
7 Pyre
Supergiant Games' Pyre is a great example of how the sports genre can be combined with others to create an engrossing, enjoyable adventure. Pyre puts an interesting spin on the tried and tested action role-playing genre by implementing sporting gameplay into the core mechanics.
Supergiant Games' unique idea was extremely well-received, exemplified by the game's 85 and 82 Metascores on PS4 and PC, respectively. Moreover, the game picked up multiple awards, including the Original Role Playing award at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards.
6 Pokemon Stadium
Pokemon battling has always been described as a sport in its universe, though the IP's video games weren't usually presented as such. That all changed with Pokemon Stadium's release in the year 2000 (NA), which emphasized the sports side of the fantasy universe by letting players simply battle it out with turn-based strategy gameplay.
The decision to emphasize the battles was a wise one, as Nintendo's Pokemon Stadium became Nintendo 64's 6th highest-selling title, ahead of classic games like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64.
5 The Mario Kart Series
The Mario Kart series has been a staple of casual multiplayer gaming since the spin-off series' origin in 1992 with Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo's racing series is now on its fifteenth entry, with Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, a mixed reality game that lets players bring high-speed action into their house.
Fans of the franchise are hopeful that a new entry into the core series will be announced soon, as the last main game, Mario Kart 8, debut all the way back in 2014 on the Wii U.
4 Powerball
Powerball (also known as Wrestleball) was developed and released by Namco in 1991 on the Sega Genesis. The game combines three of the world's most popular sports: Soccer, rugby, and football. Although this may sound like a hot mess, Namco managed to create a combination that works well and makes for a simple yet addictive gameplay experience.
As the Wrestleball title suggests, the game also lets players gain an advantage that would earn them a lengthy ban in any of the three aforementioned sports, as they can perform brutal wrestling moves in an attempt to incapacitate their opponents.
3 Burnout Paradise
Of all the sports on this list, street racing is almost certainly the one that most people will be glad doesn't exist in real life. As well as featuring numerous illegal street races, Burnout Paradise also features a Showtime mode, which is possibly the most insane sport to ever appear in a game. Showtime mode is an evolution of the Crash mode from Burnout Paradise's predecessors, where players are rewarded for crashing their car in the most dramatic fashion.
Interestingly, Burnout Paradise had a significant hand in the street racing genre's demise, as data showed that many players weren't competing in the game's street racing events but were just driving around the open-world map instead.
2 Jet Set Radio
Jet Set Radio (also known as Jet Grind Radio) was originally released on Sega's Dreamcast in 2000 before debuting on numerous other consoles in the years that followed, such as the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Vita.
The game features a unique sport that was clearly intended to appeal to teenagers and young adults at the time, as players quickly move around Tokyo on inline skates to earn points by tagging graffiti. Jet Set Radio is among Metacritic's highest-rated games ever, with a huge score of 94.
1 Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
Quidditch is one of the few fantasy sports that can rival the recognizability of Star Wars' Podracing. Unlike Podracing, which only features a small handful of times across Star Wars media, Quidditch appears in almost every video game and film from the Harry Potter universe. Unsurprisingly, fans of the Harry Potter franchise were desperate for a Quidditch video game when EA acquired the rights, and they got their wish when Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup hit stores in 2003.
The game is slow to get started, as the Hogwarts tutorial section overstays its welcome, but once players reach the World Cup, the difficulty significantly ramps up, and the game becomes far more engrossing.