And for every Non-American great gamer there is the equivalent great American gamer. There is bound to be people better around the world but I gurantee you for every top ten leaderboard on just about every video game there is at least one if not more American gamers. Just like the Olympics or any major worldwide phenominom.

It's just that online gaming in America tends to have alot more causual gamers than most contries cause almost every house has or steals the internet for resonable prices. The rest of the world not so much (Excluding larger countries with high population densities tends to drive the overall price down). Correct me if I'm wrong.

The biggest reason is the spread of video games.

Although video games are starting to be come mainstream here in the U.S. only about 30% of the population accept it as "normal".  In most of europe and countries in asia video games are very mainstream, and a larger percentage of people play video games.  More people playing = more competition = better players.

Also, the attitude we adopt when it comes to competitive video games is really effing retarded, but that is more a personal gripe.

europeans are better than us at FPS, asia is better than us at fighters and strategy, but we have several games where americans are the best in the world.  There is wow arena, racing games, and smash bros.

well i had a theory...but then you mentioned canada and the UK...and all im left with is that maybe you arent very good.

Please no US bashing.  No reason to hate and be ignorant.

The US isn't the best but then again no other one contry is either.

Just as no one other person is better than me. Because to me I am the best person I can be.

maybe its because most americans play cod, which is a game which doesnt require skill. most people in my country who are actual good fps players play counter strike all day long, maybe that makes them so good.

I know quite of few people play the hell out of counterstrike here and they do tend to be better at shooters as well.

Me personally I was always a Quake and Unreal person. Twich shooters where what I was best at but unfortunatly they have gone to the wayside in favor of more "REALISTIC" shooters. Who said I wanted realistic in my shooters. I want Duke Nukem Forever DAMMIT!

BTW last I checked COD is a best seller worldwide (even Japan). Not just the US so get the "My nation only plays Shooter ECT and were better" crap out of here please.

I'm also the world's best bullshitter as well.

im not a big shooter fan :P, only shooters i played a lot and constantly were counter strike and cod 4, im not going to get a shooter this holiday, il wait for kz3, ive given up on the popular franchises. unreal on ps3 was very fun, unfortunatly i never bought it. i heard a rumor that they are working on duke nukem forever, if that happens i would want a half life on consoles!

hm.....Halo 3 you say? maybe because games like Halo 3 is very popular in America, so even after a long time there are still plenty of people buy and play it, but in other regions people tend to move on to newer games after a while, those that still remain are the ones who really like the game and they play the crap outta it, so it seems to you that every non American gamer is good.

I doubt whether it's something that could be observed across all genres but certainly with some games it might have to do with the kinds of gamers that buy a particular game in particular countries.  This in turn could be determined by the popularity of the game, genre, the kind of advertising it got in various countries etc.