Last Updated on 28 May, 2024
Sports video gaming often gives a great insight into a sport’s wider popularity—especially globally. While this might not be true for NFL Madden sales in the US, which is a guaranteed money-spinner for EA Sports every year, fringe combat sports like boxing and MMA are where a lot of the underlying demand gets brought to the surface via video gaming.
Boxing & MMA
Although combat sports like Taekwondo, Judo, and wrestling all have a significant place in the Olympics and broader global competition, the general consensus in the West and further afield is that MMA and boxing dominate the combat sports industry. Up until about 30 years ago, boxing was the dominant sport. Over the last 20 years or so, the UFC has started to show itself as worthy and, in some people’s opinion, even better competition.
Perhaps the best example of this is EA Sports’s pivot since the mid-2000s. Boxing games used to be a stalwart of their collection; whether it was Knockout Kings or Fight Night, there seemed to be a new boxing video game every year or two.
However, as the sport slowly started to lose ground to the UFC due to a combination of the best fights not being made, promoter conflicts, and expensive PPV models that people could no longer afford – Dana White’s UFC model soon became a much more popular route for those looking to tune in to watch some fights.
Cost-Effective Decisions – Why MMA Over Boxing?
There are many reasons why EA Sports decided to make UFC games instead of boxing games. The executives at EA Sports understood they didn’t have the budget or demand to make a UFC or a boxing game. Dana White controls the UFC brand; he’s the monolith at the top of the sport, so, firstly, it’s more cost-effective to make a UFC game.
Dana knows how to direct the business, and ever since he changed UFC’s HQ to Las Vegas, it’s a bet that’s started to pay off in a big way. We imagine an element of this decision revolved around Dana’s love for blackjack, as he is often seen in casinos in Vegas playing his favorite card-based casino game.
Dana doesn’t discriminate, though; he’s a big fan of the digital version, too, and while his love for online blackjack might not equate to that of his penchant for other versions of blackjack, he doesn’t dismiss the online version at all. His approach to blackjack exemplifies his business strategy and his open-mindedness to new digital ideas. Given that he has an overriding say and can control the UFC budget much better than the eye-watering sums that boxers get for image rights – this played a significant factor in EA Sports pivoting to UFC over boxing.
Viewing Figures & Boxing Failing To Adapt
While there’s a lot of crossover between boxing fans and MMA fans, there’s a stark contrast in how they operate. UFC’s commitment to consistently having the top champions fight the top contenders has meant that people have slowly veered away from boxing and toward MMA—especially in the US. Despite the release of Undisputed, the first boxing game in a decade, it doesn’t have the same traction or marketing budget as EA Sports UFC game.
UFC is far from perfect, and Dana White has often been criticized for underpaying his fighters – boxing goes the other way, paying fighters exorbitant sums of money for fights that underdeliver. Ultimately, if you look at them objectively, boxing’s model is a more dated one, with many fighters taking easy roads, inserting rehydration clauses, and being too concerned about the marketing value of 0 losses rather than actually challenging themselves against genuinely dangerous opposition.
This bleeds into the viewership at a base level, and you only have to look at the UFC’s size and scope to see how it’s on course to dominate combat sports. Ultimately, gaming companies pay attention to this – especially those with such a strong presence in dozens of sports over several decades. Money talks – and all of these societal factors mean that it’s a better bet for prominent gaming companies to make UFC video games rather than boxing games.
Final Thoughts
UFC 5 continues to pioneer combat sports video gaming, selling well and providing EA Sports with much better sales figures than any of their boxing games. Although sports video games are often a symptom of the wider viewership, it doesn’t mean it’s set in stone, either.
If boxing can get a genuine crossover star this decade in the same way Conor McGregor was for the UFC, then this dial could rapidly switch the other way, too. Boxing video games don’t cease to exist – but having a giant like EA Sports move toward MMA instead of boxing was a huge win for the UFC.
It’s enabled them to advertise themselves to younger generations via a platform they understand. At the same time, boxing continues to shoot itself in the foot behind expensive paywalls and fights that nobody really wants to see.