Perceived uniqueness of esports: players’ hyperconnected digital playground for self-improvement

Abstract

Esports has emerged as an important topic in sport management literature. However, the majority of scholarly publications have examined esports in a confirmatory manner by replicating the concepts and constructs from traditional sport consumer behaviour. The purpose of this study was to explore the unique attributes of esports experiences through an exploratory investigation of esports gamers’ lived experiences in comparison to traditional sport. Based on an inductive thematic analysis using qualitative interviews (N = 14), the findings revealed five overarching themes that emerged as distinct aspects of esports experiences: accessibility, hyperconnectivity, objective fairness, imitation and self-improvement. Whereas there were similarities with traditional sport, esports is distinctive in its technological-based nature that enables high accessibility, hyperconnectivity and exclusive self-improvement experiences and processes through omnichannel platforms. Our study responds to calls for a contextual understanding of the distinguished characteristics of esports experiences, providing implications for future research and strategic esports management.