sports game

plural sports games

1. A video game or arcade game that simulates a sport.

   BASKETBALL (CX2624) is sure to delight electronic sports game fans. It offers the most exciting four minutes of one-on-one hoop action we’ve seen so far.

   1979, Bill Kunkle, “Arcade Alley”, in Video, page 43

   3 more examples

   Greatest Sports Game Sensation. Approved and played by Spec Shea, Johny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, Rogers Hornsby, others. NO DICE OR SPINNERS – Hit a Grounder, Pop Fly, or a Home Run Over the Fence

   1950 October, “Sensational baseball game [advertisement]”, in My Friend Irma, number 5, page 29

   There is nothing cooler than playing a sports game for months on end, only to see something you’ve never seen before. Madden is chock full of one-handed grabs, leaping catches, and bone crunching hits.

   1997 October, “Madden 64: The game that shocked the world”, in Game Informer, page 15

   Kayali and Purgathofer (2008) tried to differentiate the genre of digital sports games into sub-genres: extreme sports game, fun sports game, sports simulation, team sports simulation and deep sports simulation.

   2010 February, Rolf Kretschmann, “Developing Competencies by Playing Digital Sports-Games”, in US-China Educational Review, page 68

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see sport, game.

   a sports game came into existence which is now played all over the world,[…] The game is basketball—America’s only true native sports game.

   1971, Mac Davis, Football’s Unforgettables, page 34