OUR FAVORITE BREAKDOWN 💡

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CHARTS 🌁

This project was a grind.

I’m not sure the last time I sat and watched a full sports game, no phone, no standing up for commercials, no chatting. Just pure research 🔬 for the greater good.

As I jammed my buttons for each category, the data came out looking like this - just with 10,000 more rows.

The key to prepping this data was making sure all sports were represented in the same way. We simplified it into three categories: in-play, out-of-play, and commercial time (plus free throws for basketball).

Some of our TikTok commenters didn’t love these categorizations, but the simplicity was designed for casual fans—not necessarily for someone keeping their own scorecard at a baseball game. 📋

With the final data in hand, the next decision was to choose the right type of chart. 📊

We had some limitations: multi-series proportional data can only be represented in a few ways. Traditionally, a stacked bar chart is the go-to option—we even created one above for the data visualization purists out there. ⬆️

But I use those a lot already, so I wanted to change it up.

While the stacked bar chart is certainly cleaner, more representative, and generally more presentable, switching to stacked rings felt like the right move.

There are a few reasons we don’t love this one, partially mentioned above.

At its core, the chart visually misrepresents data. As this response points out, the outer rings occupy more space on the page, which can subconsciously lead readers to place more importance on them. 🧠

It becomes an issue especially when we’re working with a big radius and in this case, the basketball 🏀 ring is more than double the length of the baseball ⚾️ ring.

Here’s that concept visualized if we straightened those rings out. It’s the same problem you get with the Apple Watch fitness rings.

Is it a big deal for my doodle videos ✍️ explaining sports? Not really.

Is it a bad practice in general? 🙅 You bet.

The core of this breakdown was the ring chart, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun in the margins.

As we worked through this analysis, a clear division between the two groups of sports emerged.

Conceptually, baseball ⚾️ and football 🏈 are what we’d call “distinct event sports.” They’re marked by short, highlight-ready plays 🎉 that can stand alone in the media, making them more similar than you might expect. The average play only lasts around 5 seconds in these sports, with long breaks in between—but that’s not necessarily a drawback.

Both sports are highly strategic and rely heavily on individual matchups, like the pitcher versus batter in baseball. This means the time between plays is where teams strategize, aiming to beat their opponents mentally. ♟️

Hockey 🏒 and basketball 🏀, on the other hand, follow a different rhythm.

These sports don’t have mandatory stoppages, allowing for minutes of continuous action. I like to think of these as “flow games,” where you need to watch for extended periods 🧘 to fully experience the movement and rhythm of the game.

These charts made great supporting actors. They weren’t the stars of the show, but they played their parts nicely.

The Average Play Time chart captures the idea of paired sports well, showing how basketball and hockey closely align, while baseball and football follow a similar pattern.

The next chart gives insight into game flow—on the left, you see the distinct moments, and on the right, the extended periods of continuous action.

Both charts complement the core ring chart and add new insights beyond just proportional time spent. They’re the Robin to our ring chart’s Batman.

OTHER STUFF WE MADE 🎥