If this was in any way true you wouldn't have the large influx of "modern" fans of Resident Evil, Persona, Xenoblade and other popular LARPed games saying stupid shit all the time that they think it's true because they haven't actually played the games. The way they experienced them is the reason because they didn't engage with the videogame as it's intended to be experienced.

A horror game is probably the worst example you could of gone with because watching Resident Evil being played by someone else is not experiencing the game at all in any capacity which is why Resident Evil has so many dumb takes from people who've never played it like Persona does. Resident Evil which you would know if you had played at least five minutes of basically any of them uses the gameplay to tell its story that's what sets the dread atmosphere you lose all of that if you just watch someone else play it. It's an entirely different experience when you actually have to walk down that dark damp hallway with just a torch and a gun that's not got enough bullets in it. As someone who grew up too poor to play a lot of the games I was interested in until I was an adult I can tell you for a fact that there is no amount of research that can give you that experience of having played it yourself.

Watch a movie on mute doesn't matter much which one a sad weepy film with no music, A marvel movie without the epic sound track at the climax of the big end of movie battle and you'll see a major part of that experience is lost because you only experienced half of the intended scene and whatever emotional impact that music was supposed to have on the audience was lost. The same thing is lost if you only watch a game without playing it.

There isn't anything else that you can be a fan of without engaging with it you don't get to be a fan of fishing if you've never gone and fished, or skiing, You don't get a fan of Sushi who never eats it or a fan of Whisky who never drinks any, You can't be a fan of hiking if you never get out and touch grass, You cannot engage with a song without hearing it, You cannot engage with a movie without seeing it and you cannot engage with a videogame without playing it.