Surely the popularity of other games (in the US) are a direct result of Advertising or mainstream publicity. I don't think it has anything to do with culture of needing to win.
LFS never reached a critical mass outside of the EU IMO. There were peaks around releases, but nothing really sustained for any great time. More of a timezone factor rather than anything culture wise. There were a few dedicated individuals who invested in servers to support non-EU competitions etc (for many years), but it never was more than a niche. They were probably responsible for a good percentage of license sales over the years too. It certainly would have made sense for the devs to invest (at any level) in these individuals/competitions, but there was nothing, not even any acknowledgement.
LFS never reached a critical mass outside of the EU IMO. There were peaks around releases, but nothing really sustained for any great time. More of a timezone factor rather than anything culture wise. There were a few dedicated individuals who invested in servers to support non-EU competitions etc (for many years), but it never was more than a niche. They were probably responsible for a good percentage of license sales over the years too. It certainly would have made sense for the devs to invest (at any level) in these individuals/competitions, but there was nothing, not even any acknowledgement.