A widely accepted axiom is that parity in sport is generally beneficial, and something that governing bodies should always be striving to increase.

It’s no coincidence that the three most profitable sports leagues in the world — all based in the United States — use a combination of salary caps, luxury taxes and talent drafts to ensure competitiveness throughout their seasons, and prevent the kind of lopsided results common in countries with more capitalist sporting structures.

Sport, at its heart, is entertainment. To retain fan interest, not only must competition be of an elite athletic level, but it also has to have an element of unpredictability.

Individual sport differs somewhat from team-based games in that star power can offset imbalances in parity to a much greater degree.

Sheer force of personality, and the achievement of heights previously thought unreachable, means that figures such as Serena Williams, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt have guaranteed high viewing figures, even when the outcome of many of their contests was never in doubt.

Sumo, while having more in common physically with American football than any other sport, is squarely in the latter camp when it comes to fan engagement.

The ebb and flow of Japan’s national sport is closely tied to the rise and fall of its grand champions.

Yokozuna such as Futabayama, Taiho, Chiyonofuji and Takanohana saw sumo’s popularity increase in tandem with their own.

Sumo also lionizes its greatest proponents to a degree inconceivable in any other athletic endeavor.

Yokozuna are not only feted far more than other wrestlers, they are considered living representations of their sport, breathing an air so rarefied that losing records are unconscionable. In no other sport does a few bad performances immediately lead to discussion about whether or not an athlete should "do the honorable thing" and retire before they sully their rank.

With injury forcing Terunofuji out of the ongoing Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament, murmurs about how the time may be approaching for the veteran to consider hanging up his mawashi belt can already be heard.

The Isegahama stable man previously created the greatest comeback story in the history of sumo, however, so writing him off at this stage would be premature — despite his obviously poor physical condition.

Regardless of whether or not Terunofuji makes a triumphant return later this year — or even in 2023 — it’s clear that he is in the final act of his career and that there is no immediate successor to his throne in the top division right now.

After several decades with one historically dominant and decorated yokozuna following another, sumo looks like it will have to pivot away from its traditional dependence on superstars and lean into the sport’s overall parity to ensure continued exciting content for its growing list of outlets and channels.

After 10 days of action at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, not one of the 14 highest-ranked rikishi in the sport has secured eight wins.

As the meet enters its final third, seven of the eight men with the best records to date are maegashira, with sekiwake Wakatakakage — two wins behind the leaders — the only sanyaku-ranked wrestler keeping pace.

Tamawashi stood at 9-1 following Tuesday's bouts after facing most of the top-rankers already, but even so, a 13-2 or 12-3 title triumph still seems more likely than one with a 14-1 record.

The likelihood of only a fourth-ever 11-4 championship sometime in the near future also seems to be increasing in a top division that grows ever more unpredictable by the tournament.

So far, the lack of a can’t-miss rising young superstar doesn’t seem to be affecting the sport’s popularity — at least online.

The number and volume of websites, social media groups, subreddits and Discord servers dedicated to sumo in Japanese, English and other languages continues to grow.

Ticket sales aren’t back to what they were pre-pandemic, but with the health crisis still ongoing and a certain amount guidelines and restrictions in place, comparisons can’t yet be made with attendances three or four years ago.

While domestic audiences remain the main priority — and constitute the overwhelming majority of fan-related income — greater engagement with foreign fans is clearly of growing importance to the Japan Sumo Association, as evidenced by the establishment of its English-language YouTube channel Sumo Prime Time.

One positive for sumo’s governing body is that growth in the sport’s international fan base isn’t dependent on the presence of a superstar yokozuna in the same way as it traditionally has been in Japan.

Few new sumo fans abroad have any knowledge of the sport before first encountering it online.

In addition to being just as attracted to the cultural and ceremonial aspects of the sport as the action in the ring, foreign fans are unfettered when it comes to choosing rikishi to support.

Time and again, posts on English-language communities reveal a multitude of reasons for supporting various wrestlers, whether it's the first rikishi a community member saw, the color of their mawashi or the movie star they resemble.

While every top-tier rikishi has solid backing domestically, the support of wrestlers seems to be much more evenly distributed among sumo’s foreign fan base.

In an era when many more rikishi than normal have a chance at lifting silverware, having international support spread out among the contenders only helps fuel and deepen sumo’s foreign fan base.

In the long run, of course, a young and strong yokozuna needs to emerge in order to energize domestic support. But for now, parity in sumo, just as many abroad are discovering the sport, is serendipitous.