Esports: a multidisciplinary research perspective and future research direction

Abstract

Video gaming is poised to become the dominant form of modern entertainment, with esports emerging as a central pillar of this transformation. Experts predict that esports—defined as professional, tournament-level competitive gaming (Cunningham et al., 2018)—could one day rival traditional sports such as football in terms of player participation, audience size, and revenue generation (Scholz, 2019). With rapidly expanding audiences, institutional support, and cultural relevance, esports now rivals traditional sports in economic impact and societal presence. Yet, scholarly understanding of this phenomenon remains fragmented across disciplines, lacking a unified conceptual foundation. Cranmer et al. (2021) redefined esports and proposed the “Esports Matrix”, which categorises esports into four realms: traditional game experience, digitally enhanced sports, immersive reality sports, and sports digitalisation. Similarly, Jeong and Youk (2023) refined esports definitions and highlighted its shared elements with traditional sports, such as institutionalisation, industry involvement, and contingent problems. Addressing the conceptual fragmentation these studies highlight, this special issue of Internet Research presents multidisciplinary research on the governance, technological innovation, and consumer dynamics shaping the esports ecosystem. To integrate these diverse insights, we propose a Unified Multilayered Esports Framework (UMEF) that maps research across macro, meso, and micro levels and offers a roadmap for future inquiry