Sometimes—but analytics are better understood as an accelerant of strategic change than as the sole cause of less enjoyable play. When teams converge on the same efficient tactic, games can feel more repetitive or leave fewer athletes involved in the action. But analytics can also produce suspenseful choices, and fans disagree about which styles they prefer. The evidence documents changes in play and competing views more clearly than it measures whether sports fans, overall, are having less fun.
What does “less fun” mean?
There is no single feature of a game that all fans value in the same way. One viewer may want varied tactics and athletic fielding; another may enjoy a steady stream of high-value shots, home runs or close decisions. A longer game can still be compelling if its pauses build anticipation, while a shorter one can feel dull if little meaningful action happens.
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It helps to separate a few questions that often get bundled together:
- Variety: Are there several viable approaches, or does one dominant tactic crowd out alternatives?
- Action and participation: Does a play involve many athletes, or repeatedly narrow the contest to the same matchup?
- Pace: Is the issue total game length, empty time between plays, or how often important events occur?
- Strategic tension: Do data-informed decisions make outcomes feel more consequential, or more predictable?
- Personal preference: Does the viewer like the style of play the sport is moving toward?
Calling a change “boring” is a judgment about the experience, not proof that fans broadly agree or that analytics caused it.
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How can analytics change the game?
Optimization can make teams look alike
Teams seek tactics that improve their chances of winning. If one approach succeeds, competitors may copy it; measurement can help identify the approach and spread it faster. In cross-sport reporting, analysts describe data as an accelerant of strategic convergence—not the only source of it. Rules, player abilities, coaching intuition and the simple incentive to imitate a winner also shape how sports evolve.
The Washington Post’s March 2025 feature, based on conversations with more than three dozen executives, coaches, athletes and analytics professionals, describes this tension across sports. It is reported journalism, not an experiment that measures analytics’ causal effect on enjoyment. Read the Washington Post’s cross-sport report.
Efficiency may trade variety for expected value
In baseball, analysis can favor approaches that increase the chance of a walk or home run, even if that means more strikeouts and fewer balls put in play. In basketball, a three-point attempt can be valuable enough to shift shot selection toward the arc. These tactics can produce spectacular moments, but if teams rely on them repeatedly, some fans may miss a wider range of plays.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThat is a trade-off, not a verdict: the same strategy can look exciting to a viewer who values scoring and frustrating to one who wants more variety or more athletes involved.
Data can also encourage risk-taking
Football offers a different kind of example. The Washington Post’s reporting associates analytics with bolder fourth-down attempts and fewer punts. A decision to go for it can put more at stake on a single play, creating a high-pressure outcome rather than a routine change of possession. Here, optimization may heighten drama instead of flattening it.
What changed in baseball and basketball?
| Example | Reported change | What the number does—and does not—show |
|---|---|---|
| MLB plate appearances ending against a shifted defense | 6,882 in 2013; 59,062 in 2021 | Historical MLB figures reported by The Washington Post in 2025. These count plate appearances ending against a shift—not every shift, and not how fans felt about them. |
| NBA three-point attempts per team per game | 6.6 in 1988–89; 22.4 in 2014–15; 37.5 so far in 2024–25 | Figures reported by The Washington Post in 2025. The 2024–25 number was described as “so far” at publication, not as a final-season total. |
Baseball’s shift and the question of athletic action
A defensive shift places fielders where data suggests a batter is likely to hit the ball. That may improve a defense’s odds, but critics argue it can take away the spectacle of fielders covering more ground or making difficult plays. Jomboy Media founder Jimmy O’Brien captured that preference as a choice between “The coaches move their chess pieces, or watching athletes do athletic things?” His reaction, in a 2026 interview with The Atlantic, illustrates one viewer’s objection; it is not a measure of fan opinion as a whole.
The Atlantic’s 2026 interview with Jomboy also shows why technology does not have one fixed effect on enjoyment. O’Brien said an automated ball-strike challenge could be entertaining as a spectacle, especially when the decision to challenge creates strategy rather than constant interruptions. In his view, baseball need not become continuous motion to be engaging.
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Basketball’s concentration on three-point shots
The growth in three-point attempts is one of the clearest examples of teams leaning into a high-value option. Critics say that can reduce the prominence of traditional post play, big-man skills and footwork; others enjoy the range and scoring bursts the style produces. In the Washington Post’s 2025 report, 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.” The story does not provide the survey method or question wording, so this should be read as Wasch’s account of league research—not as a fully documented public-opinion finding.
Steve Kerr, in a separate Washington Post report, said he did not consider the game broken while arguing that leagues should keep examining whether analytics help teams “game the system.” Read the Washington Post’s report on analytics and NBA and MLB rule changes.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can rule changes restore the kind of play fans want?
Leagues can change incentives when a tactic or pattern becomes a concern. That does not mean every change is an analytics fix, or that changing the rules settles what fans prefer.
MLB’s efforts to address pace and action
In a 2018 MLB.com report, Commissioner Rob Manfred called pace a fan issue, citing league and broadcast-partner research. The measures described at the time included limiting mound visits and shortening between-inning breaks. Those steps should not be confused with MLB’s later 2023 changes.
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MLB tested proposed changes in minor-league games before adopting its 2023 pace, shift and base changes, according to contemporaneous Sportsnet reporting. The report’s game-time comparison—about 24 minutes less than the previous spring-training year—was an early spring-training snapshot, not a current-season measure. Read Manfred’s comments on pace of play and Sportsnet’s report on testing proposed changes.
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The Washington Post’s 2025 feature says the 2023 changes removed roughly half an hour of dead time and increased stolen-base rates, while concerns about “three true outcomes” baseball persisted. That is the article’s assessment of reported outcomes, not a randomized estimate of what caused them. Rule changes can shift the balance of play, but no single adjustment can guarantee that every viewer will prefer the result.
Audience figures are not enjoyment scores
MLB reported that MLB.TV viewership among fans 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. It also reported that the median age of a ticket buyer fell from 51 to 45 between 2019 and 2024, while ticket buyers aged 18–35 increased by 9.8% over that period. These are league-published audience indicators. They do not isolate the effect of rule changes from participation, marketing, stars, technology or broader audience trends, and they are not direct measures of enjoyment.
What can fans reasonably conclude?
The evidence supports a careful conclusion: analytics can help teams find and spread efficient tactics, and broad adoption can make some sports feel more uniform. It does not establish that analytics alone have made professional sports less fun, or quantify an overall decline in fan enjoyment across leagues.
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A useful way to judge a particular change is to ask what it does to the experience you care about. Does it create more strategic tension or more dead time? Does it reward skill while bringing more players into the action, or funnel play into a narrower set of repeated outcomes? Is the tactic itself the problem, or does a rule make it too easy for teams to rely on it? Different answers can all be reasonable, even when viewers are watching the same game.
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