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Sometimes—but analytics alone do not explain why. When teams find an efficient tactic and copy it, games can become more uniform or involve fewer players in the action. But analytics can also encourage bolder decisions and add suspense. Whether the changes make sports less fun depends on the sport and what a viewer values: variety, pace, strategy, or athletic action.
How can analytics change the feel of a game?
Analytics help teams identify patterns and estimate which choices are most likely to succeed. Once a tactic appears to work, more teams may adopt it. That can narrow the range of strategies viewers see, even if each team is making a rational choice.
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Data can accelerate that convergence, but it is not the only cause. Teams also learn by watching successful rivals, respond to rule incentives, and develop strategies through coaching and experience. The Washington Post’s 2025 cross-sport reporting quotes Buffalo Sabres vice president of hockey strategy and research Sam Ventura: “But data analysis has been an accelerant.” The distinction matters: a tactic spreading during the analytics era does not, by itself, prove analytics caused it—or that it reduced enjoyment. The Washington Post’s reporting on analytics and sports aesthetics draws on interviews with more than three dozen sports figures, rather than an experiment measuring fan enjoyment.
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“Less fun” can mean different things: fewer kinds of plays, less athletic involvement, slower pacing, or less suspense. The same strategic change may disappoint one viewer and thrill another.
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| Sport and change | What critics may dislike | What can remain—or become—exciting |
|---|---|---|
| Baseball: shifts, strikeouts, walks, home runs, and pitching use | Repeated outcomes or defensive positioning that seems to remove fielding action. | High-leverage matchups and tactical choices. In 2025, The Washington Post reported that plate appearances ending against a shifted defense rose from 6,882 in 2013 to 59,062 in 2021. Those are plate appearances, not a measure of fan preference. |
| Basketball: more three-point attempts | A narrower mix of shots and less post play, footwork, or variation in how teams attack. | Long-range shots, dunks, and the tension of a close game. The Washington Post reported 6.6 three-point attempts per team per game in 1988–89, 22.4 in 2014–15, and 37.5 so far in 2024–25; the last figure was not a final-season total in that report. |
| Football: more fourth-down attempts and fewer punts | Some viewers may miss the conventional field-position contest or prefer a more conservative approach. | A coach’s high-stakes choice can create suspense, and going for it can produce a dramatic play rather than a punt. |
The basketball figures and the league debate are discussed in The Washington Post’s report on analytics and rule changes in the NBA and MLB. NBA executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics Evan Wasch said, “But [according to] our research, the majority prefer the style of play we currently see.” That is his account of NBA research; the article does not provide the survey method, so it should not be treated as a definitive measure of what all fans think. Coach Steve Kerr, meanwhile, has argued that leagues should keep evaluating whether analytics help teams “game the system,” while saying he does not consider the game broken.
Can a rule change make an analytics-shaped sport more enjoyable?
Leagues can adjust rules to change incentives, but whether the result is more enjoyable is a separate question from whether the game changes. Baseball’s 2023 rules addressed pace and play patterns, including the pitch clock, limits on defensive shifts, and larger bases. The Washington Post’s 2025 account says those changes removed roughly half an hour of dead time and boosted stolen-base rates, while concerns about “three true outcomes”—walks, strikeouts, and home runs—remained. That is a reported assessment of the changes, not a randomized estimate of their effect on enjoyment.
MLB had tested proposed changes in minor-league games before adopting them, according to Sportsnet’s report from the 2023 spring-training period. It described game times as down about 24 minutes from the previous spring-training year, an early snapshot rather than a current-season measure. The league’s approach reflects a trade-off: changing rules may restore some action, but it also changes the game fans are used to watching.
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Pace itself can mean total game length, dead time, or how often meaningful action occurs. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called it a fan issue in remarks reported by MLB.com in 2018. The measures then discussed—limiting mound visits and shortening between-inning breaks—were distinct from the later 2023 rules.
What do audience numbers tell us—and what can’t they tell us?
MLB reported that MLB.TV viewership among people aged 18–24 rose 11% in 2023 compared with 2022, and that the platform’s average viewer age fell from 48 to 44 between 2018 and 2023. The league also reported that the median age of a ticket buyer fell from 51 in 2019 to 45 in 2024, while ticket buyers aged 18–35 increased by 9.8% over that period. These are MLB-published audience measures, not independent proof that rule changes made baseball more enjoyable. The league’s 2024 account also points to influences including youth participation, technology, and marketing.
Those figures describe particular MLB audiences and time periods; they do not establish what fans across sports think, or isolate the effect of analytics from other changes. Likewise, a vivid complaint from a prominent commentator is evidence of a perspective, not a representative poll.
Why can the same technology feel entertaining in one moment and frustrating in another?
Enjoyment is not simply a matter of whether technology or data is involved. It can depend on what the change puts on display. In a 2026 interview with The Atlantic, Jomboy Media founder Jimmy O’Brien criticized the old defensive shift for raising the question: “The coaches move their chess pieces, or watching athletes do athletic things?” He described automated ball-strike challenges differently: “It’s fun as a spectacle, and the strategy of when to challenge—rather than constant.” Those are one commentator’s reactions, not a general verdict on analytics. The Atlantic interview also captures the idea that baseball can remain social and stop-and-start without requiring constant motion.
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How can you judge whether analytics are making your sport less fun?
Instead of asking whether sports are simply better or worse, consider what you value and whether the changes are moving it in the wrong direction:
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- Variety: Are teams using a range of viable tactics, or does one approach dominate?
- Action and participation: Do more players get involved, or does the game repeatedly narrow to the same matchup or shot?
- Pace: Is the problem the total runtime, pauses between plays, or too few meaningful events?
- Strategic tension: Do decisions make outcomes feel less predictable in an exciting way, or more predictable and repetitive?
- Your sport and audience: A basketball viewer’s concern about shot selection may not translate to a baseball or football fan’s expectations.
These questions are more useful than treating every analytical innovation as the same kind of change. A strategy can improve a team’s odds while making the contest less varied; a rule or presentation change can also make a tactical decision more visible and engaging.
So, are analytics making pro sports less fun?
They can contribute to less varied or less action-rich play when teams converge on efficient tactics, but the evidence does not establish that analytics have made professional sports less enjoyable overall. The available reporting documents strategic changes and disagreement more clearly than it measures a causal effect on fan enjoyment. The most accurate answer is therefore conditional: analytics can make certain parts of a sport feel more repetitive, while other analytics-shaped decisions create drama. The verdict depends on the game and the fan.
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