Sports Fanfiction: The 2016 Espy Award Nominees Inspire Thousands of Stories on Wattpad
Wattpad stories reflect a variety of interests across pop-culture, including sports. Sporting events and athletes are featured in thousands of Wattpad stories. Since the the Espy Awards air tonight, we looked at the growing trend of sports-inspired fiction. What is an ESPY? Think of it as the Oscars for athletes. It’s a moment where teams, coaches, and industry icons are celebrated on stage.
Sports fanfiction is big on Wattpad. Last month the community spent over 500,000 minutes reading fiction related to tonight’s host, John Cena, alone. Here’s how other ESPY nominees stack up on Wattpad.
BEST NFL PLAYER
Up for an award tonight are Cam Newton, Tom Brady, JJ Watt, Antonio Brown, and Julio Jones. Of these athletes, Cam Newton does the best on Wattpad with over 2,000 related stories shared.
Surprisingly, none of the other nominees come close to Cam, but last year’s ESPY Award Winner, Odell Beckham Jr. does. There are more than twice the amount of stories for Beckham than for Cam.
Over 4,500 Odell Beckham Jr. stories are available on Wattpad
BEST NBA PLAYER
New teammates Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are favourites to take tonight's ESPY. The other nominees including LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and Russell Westbrook could be sorry to hear that Chef Curry is also the favourite on Wattpad. With over 3,000 story uploads shared, this year’s NBA MVP has inspired a ton of fiction.
BEST NHL PLAYER
Sidney Crosby might be a hockey legend, but on Wattpad it’s the popular ship of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Towes that inspires the most stories with 5,000 story uploads. Other nominees like Alex Ovechkin, Joe Pavelski, and Braden Holtby are left way behind the breakaway duo.
If you are tuning into the ESPY Awards tonight and the show leaves you in the mood for more, remember that you can always find your favourite athletes on Wattpad.
If you are a journalist and want to find out more about the sports fiction phenomenon on Wattpad, get in touch!