To Joshua Alvarado, 16, who said he usually spent at least six hours a day playing video games, the point seemed obvious. "I love sports," he said. "But why would you rather just watch it on TV when the video game lets you control it?"
Millions of young American men seem to be asking the same question. 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.
