They care more because they have a lower average age and a much, much higher instance of autistic spectrum disorders and internet addiction.
Although I think someone asking this question must be either quite young or suffering from a bad case of recentism. Until downloading became a thing, music fans were obsessed with the charts, who was number 1 and which singles and albums went platinum. When I were a wee shota in the glorious decade of the 90s (obviously only 90s kids are cool enough to remember this), nearly all the top music shows in Britain were chart countdowns and everyone eagerly awaited news of who was top of the pops. This would probably still be the case if sales were still a meaningful way of determining a song's actual popularity.
