Why? Probably because simulating anything half-realistic is as boring as it sounds. Yet somehow, a select few have transcended god-awful tedium to become the only sports games we give a damn about. We present to you the top 7 sports games that get us cheering for the home team.

Selling points:
Simple controls, plentiful match types, Create-A-Wrestler, blood

Why we love it:
Say what you will about this sim of the popular fake sport (how does that even work?), but even the most jaded gamer can’t help but love cracking his buddy over the head with a barbed wire baseball bat to the screaming cheers of the blood-thirsty crowd. Selling 37 million copies across the entire series, WWE SmackDown enables gamers to bring the pain with notable faces and created superstars in over a trillion match types and dozens of gameplay modes.

Even as the series gradually moved towards annual updates like other sports games and started - including General Manager modes (think the dreadfully boring NFL Head Coach) and Stamina meter (hold Select to catch breath? No thanks) - SmackDown’s never lost sight of its goal: to let you easily throw your opponent through a flaming table.

Would suck if:
Matches consisted entirely of rest holds, no weapons