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LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Milliseconds afterward touch on, the thousands who crowded the Staples Center in Los Angeles were silent. Some fifty-fifty whispered concerns the skateboarder might have paid the ultimate price for his sport.

Australian Jake Brown lay motionless later on plunging the equivalent of near five stories before smacking the trough of a massive wooden bowl -- the skateboarders' stage at ESPN's 13th annual X Games -- and crumpling in a heap. Somehow, Brown miraculously rose to his anxiety after about 10 minutes and staggered off to resounding thanks.

"Staples, make some noise for Jake Brownish!" the in-business firm announcer exhorted.

Wink back a few hours to the 10 Games vendor tents, where privately held SC Johnson'southward Border shaving gel sponsors a booth. Personnel there try to encourage X Games' attendees to either limbo under or high-jump over a batten as they prowl through on their skateboards.

One takes, past comparison, a pocket-sized spill on the padded area. Still, it got the attention of the booth'south moderator. "Oh, that was an awesome autumn!" she said.

Such is life on the border for dice-hard fans of ESPN's Ten Games, where the agony of defeat is almost equally fun as the thrill of victory. It'due south all about super-stimulation in this "Olympics of Action Sports," where medals are handed out non to national anthems but rap tunes like "Spring Around" past House of Pain.

The Ten Games aren't merely for teenage boys anymore, though, every bit they've attracted such sponsors as Subaru and Sony Corp. SNE, to get hand-in-manus with longtime sponsors Yum Brands YUM, -1.89% Taco Bong and Pepsi Co.'southward PEP, -0.11% Mountain Dew.

Viacom Inc.'south VIA, -1.25% Paramount Pictures is promoting 2 of its upcoming films, "Hot Rod," which has 10-Games-esque action, and the classic tale, "Beowulf." Even the U.S. Navy is here, trying to interest the athletically minded in a armed forces time to come.

Edge is in its third year of sponsorship, seemingly apropos given the shaving gel'due south moniker. The visitor makes no bones near its ulterior motive.

"We're trying to become this demographic of people who haven't started shaving yet," said Jamie Scheid, a company spokeswoman. "If they're older than that, we'll convert them."

A broader appeal

Indeed, companies are discovering more and more that they have something in common with the Ten Games crowd, which was considered an underground cult simply a decade ago.

While that globe may or may not include backward baseball caps, extensive tattooing, body piercings and liberal helpings of Monster or Rockstar energy drinks -- two other companies with an 10 Games presence -- families or schools making field trips detect the 10 Games a destination point.

More importantly, participation or at least interest in some sort of action sport is the key. The weapon of choice could be a skateboard, where anyone from the prepubescent to those nearing their midlife crunch tin win an X Games event. At that place are too surfboards, BMX bikes, motorcycles or rally cars. And many of the athletes are parents themselves.

Officials at ESPN, a unit of Walt Disney Co. DIS, -1.20% , are trying to expand the sphere of influence for the Ten Games to anyone with a sense of hazard. That could include the families of teenage boys. It could be older athletes, male or female, who aren't afraid of broken limbs, or those who don't heed seeing someone else have a close brush with death.

"Information technology'southward not then much about the games in particular, it's about the X franchise," said Rick Alessandri, the X Games' managing director.

A fifteen-year ESPN veteran, Alessandri was put in charge of the X Games eight months ago with designs on turning what was once an surreptitious event into a way of life. The 45-twelvemonth-old sports a Billabong shirt and shorts and he roams the Home Depot Heart in Carson, Calif., a curt motorway drive from the X Games' other master venue at the Staples Eye.

ESPN is marketing a line of X Games wearable through J.C. Penney JCP, as well as BMX-manner bikes, with training wheels if needed, and skateboards.

Every bit X Games star Shaun White, as well is an Olympic champion snowboarder, now makes American Express commercials, the world is warming up to the Ten lifestyle. Names such as Tony Militarist, who's won 10 X Games medals, are becoming meliorate known.

Alessandri says the games received a considerable amount of buzz last year when another X Games superstar, Travis Pastrana, achieved a milestone in the one-upmanship sport of Motocross Best Trick. Virtually riders are content with a single back flip accompanied by some daring trickery while in the air, and some appear lucky to complete just ane revolution.

Pastrana, all the same, pushed the envelope by taking off from a steeper ramp and completing a double dorsum flip. The move wowed not only the motocross world, only all X Games aficionados. Another motocross passenger, Scott Murray, tried to indistinguishable the feat this week in Los Angeles, merely to no avail.

Idiot box ratings dive

Information technology's hard to gauge how much the Ten Games have engrained themselves into the U.S. culture for there appears to be no way of quantifying their bear upon. It appears, though, that interest has slipped.

X Games viewership terminal yr was 35.half-dozen million, slightly higher than 2005's 34.7 1000000, just well off the 2002 top of 62.7 1000000. ESPN officials say it's due to fewer hours of broadcasting for the 10 Games from sister network ABC on its prime-time schedule. ABC stopped broadcasting the games a few years ago.

Last year, the Ten Games per-hour average viewership was at its lowest level since 2001. That year, ESPN, ABC and ESPN2 devoted nearly twice the circulate time to the games. ESPN officials say, withal, that figures are deceiving, equally the games are being marketed on a number of fronts via online streams also through mobile devices.

Attendance at the X Games is half of what information technology was in 1999, merely in that year the games lasted twice as long, and were free of charge. Tickets at present range from $10 to $25 for individual events.

In that location too are fewer events than before, every bit street luge, bungee jumping and sportclimbing have been taken off the consequence lineup over the years. This year, though, rally-car racing has been added.

Involvement in sponsoring the X Games doesn't seem to exist waning. ESPN officials say in that location were 6 original sponsors of the X Games and now the listing totals xv.

New this twelvemonth is Subaru, endemic by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (7270) The visitor stepped in when General Motors GM, -3.07% backed out last year.

Subaru provides rally cars for some of the athletes, including Pastrana, who doubled as a rally rider final twelvemonth and won that event forth with motocross. The Subaru team swept all three rally medals.

"When he won last year, it was huge," said John Im, Subaru sponsorship and promotions manager. "We probably got more than buzz for that than annihilation we did all year."

Now he hopes to drive more interest in such rally-motorcar favorites as the Subaru Impreza too every bit other models in the visitor's stable, all of which feature all-bike drive.

Some are trying to capture futurity interest from various demographics. The U.S. Navy was daring passers-past to engage in SEAL exercises.

Alessandri insists interest in X Games is spreading, saying they're no longer only a U.S. upshot. Other incarnations of the event are being held in such far-flung locales as Shanghai and Dubai. In that location also are the Winter 10 Games, which he says athletes prize more than than the Wintertime Olympics.

"I think the Olympics take taken a page out of our book," he said. "If you lot talk to the athletes, these are the Olympics of Action Sports."