I am 99.9% sure there is a bigger fan base in rugby than ice hockey. so with all the excuses saying theres no market for a rugby game that's bull. Most games have just tried to cut corners ethier decent gameplay crap graphics or decent graphics crap game play. and wonder why no ones buying there games. this game will be on my Christmas list though..
It would probably be very close.
Ice Hockey has an extremely high to moderate presence in all the following countries....
Canada, Finland, Latvia, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Belarus, Germany, Norway, United States(skewed to the more Northern states, though has a presence in the South as well, plus the sheer size of the North American market is bigger than the 6N and TRC countries combined).
It's also a decent niche sport in, Austria, Denmark, Slovenia, France, Kazakhstan and Italy.
It's also simpler to sort out the licensing of Ice Hockey games, since there are two leagues that are vastly superior to the rest of the domestic competitions, the NHL and to a lesser extent KHL are where the vast majority of most talented players are if you have one or both of these licenses you have a major market to sell your game to.
Rugby licensing you have multiple leagues of decent standard plus the pan continental competitions.....Super Rugby, Top 14, Aviva Premiership, Pro 12, Heineken Cup, and almost certainly ITM Cup and Currie Cup are all worthwhile competitions that a game would want to get licenses for, and that dosen't even cover the multitude of International licenses or 2nd tier pro leagues. It's a legal and logistical nightmare herding all these cats together.
