Why does a cat play with its prey?

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When a cat 'plays' with its prey, it isn't play in the sense that we know the word

There are three reasons why a cat hunts: hunger, sport and training

1. Hunger. When a cat is hungry, it hunts down an animal. Some of these animals can inflict damage on the cat, especially rodents. So a cat throw the prey around to destabilize the animal. Once it has been sufficiently weakened, the cat would strike with a bite to the neck severing the spinal cord. Then the cat would eat the prey.

2. Sport. Sometimes a cat isn't hungry but simply decide to hunt down preys. In this case, they would take their time to make exhaust the animal's energy. When the animal is dead or sufficiently weakened, they usually offer it to their own owners as a gift.

3. Training. A cat could be teaching its kittens how to hunt. When that happens, you'll see a lot of plays as the parent would try to elongate the lesson for as long as it can

So at the end, it isn't a waste of energy. It's a deliberate activity.