Guest editorial: Esports: a multidisciplinary research perspective and future research direction
本文提出统一多层电子竞技框架（UMEF），整合宏观治理、中观技术与微观个体三个层面的研究，为多学科视角下的电子竞技研究提供路线图。
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.The last decade has witnessed the explosive growth of esports in terms of viewership and revenue. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated this expansion, as the absence of traditional sports fuelled mainstream interest in competitive gaming (Ke and Wagner, 2022). The global esports market continues to grow rapidly, with its value rising from approximately 2.3 billion USD in 2023 to 2.8 billion USD in 2024. By 2025, the United States is projected to lead the global market with 1.3 billion USD in revenue, followed by China with 537 million USD. The 2024 League of Legends World Championship became the most-watched esports event to date, attracting a peak audience of 6.86 million concurrent viewers (Clement, 2025). Meanwhile, there is increasing official recognition of the significance of esports by societies, governments, international event organisers and sports policymakers. Numerous universities now offer esports education programs at bachelor's, master's and executive education levels. Moreover, for the first time, esports were a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games in China, and the first Olympic Esports Games, originally planned for 2027 in Saudi Arabia, are currently under review. With continuous growth, the former “niche market” of esports has transformed into a mainstream global phenomenon.The boom of the esports industry, the interconnectedness of multiple platforms and media, and the complex relationships between different stakeholders posit various opportunities and challenges (Meng-Lewis et al., 2022). Academic research on esports has expanded rapidly over the past decade, growing to a multidisciplinary academic field involving media studies, informatics, business, sports science, sociology, law and cognitive science (Reitman et al., 2020). This special issue aims at, firstly, providing a more comprehensive understanding of how esports have transformed the nature of sports from what is involved and who is involved to where and how the sports is staged, and secondly, examining the impact of esports development from multidisciplinary perspectives.Esports research, while expanding rapidly, is still marked by fragmentation across disciplines, and this results in isolated studies that are not able to capture the holistic nature of the esports ecosystem. This fragmentation limits our ability to address complex issues, including, for example, governance, player health, technological and cultural impacts, and audience engagement, in a cohesive manner.Building on the discussion in our special issue, there is a critical need to advance esports research through a multidisciplinary lens while fostering more holistic, interdisciplinary approaches. A multidisciplinary perspective brings together expertise and insights from diverse fields, including sports science, media studies, business and others. However, future esports research should adopt an interdisciplinary approach that integrates these insights into cohesive conceptual frameworks, enabling a more comprehensive understanding of the field (Pizzo et al., 2022).This special issue received a substantial number of submissions covering a wide range of esports research topics, addressing the identified gaps from a multidisciplinary perspective. Nine full-length articles were selected with the support of our anonymous reviewers. Methodologically, diverse research methods were employed. Based on the research themes, key theories and findings of our SI articles, we propose conceptualising esports through the UMEF (Figure 1).The UMEF structures esports research across three interconnected levels—macro (governance and institutions), meso (organisational practices and technologies) and micro (individual behaviours and identities). This model provides a holistic view of the esports ecosystem, encouraging interdisciplinary connections and guiding future inquiry. It also reflects the editorial structure of this special issue, grouping selected articles by level of practice. Additionally, UMEF links these levels to three core practical domains and six emerging research themes, which we elaborate on in the sections that follow.The macro-level studies highlight how esports is increasingly embedded in public policy, national branding and global governance debates. Together, they demonstrate the strategic importance of esports for state actors. Under this theme, research focuses on regulatory frameworks, development of the business ecosystem, corporate social responsibility, sustainability and national branding.Li et al. (2025) Scelles' study explores the evolution of a government-led esports business ecosystem through a longitudinal case study of Zhongxian Esports Town in China. Drawing on Moore's (1993) four-stage business ecosystem lifecycle model, the study collected qualitative data through semi-structured interviews and analysis of secondary documents. Findings reveal that while government policy accelerated the ecosystem's formation, overly ambitious goals and misalignment between government strategies and commercial stakeholder expectations have created tensions at early stages. These discrepancies led to a necessary shift in the town's value proposition and strategic reorientation. In addition, the authors observed that over time, previously fragmented stakeholder relationships evolved from conflict to cooperation, particularly through a renewed focus on esports education. These partnerships between educational institutions and training centres illustrate a process of value co-creation and coopetition, supporting the ecosystem's sustainability. Theoretically, this study contributes to our understanding of ecosystem co-evolution and stakeholder alignment in emerging digital clusters, particularly in non-Western contexts (Li et al., 2025).Kolyperas et al.’s (2025) article explores the evolving nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and introduces corporate digital responsibility (CDR) within the esports industry. Using a qualitative multiple case study design, the authors analysed CSR and CDR activities across a wide range of esports organisations, including publishers, teams, tournament organisers and governing bodies. Through content analysis, this study maps the multidimensional roles these actors play. The findings reveal that esports organisations, particularly game publishers, exercise humanitarian, business and cultural influence, while CSR and CDR practices are often fluid, adapting across these domains. This study extended Carroll's CSR framework (1979) to include digital responsibility alongside business performance and modes of responsiveness dimensions, including digital issues. It highlights the increasing need to integrate CSR and CDR into the routine operations of esports, given its rising public profile and commercial relevance, and makes an original theoretical contribution by bridging CSR and CDR literatures in a digital sports context (Kolyperas et al., 2024).The article co-authored by Su et al. (2025) explores how esports athletes are transformed into national brand symbols during international multisport events such as the Asian Games. Adopting a multi-method qualitative approach, including netnographic observations, semiotic visual analysis of social media posts and semi-structured interviews, the findings show that government policies, such as real-name regulations and national visual symbolism, play a strategic role in legitimising esports athletes as representatives of national identity. Nevertheless, these changes also create risks of diluting the subcultural authenticity of esports valued by fans. Digital platforms enable both government-led agenda-setting and fan-driven co-creation of athlete brands, revealing tensions between national visibility and individual expression. This study introduces the Polycatalytic Athlete Brand Transformation Model, which conceptualises how esports athletes' identities are shaped across state, media and fan domains. This research study contributes to understanding the evolving dynamics of athlete branding in esports (Su et al., 2025).Research at the meso level underscores the central role of hybrid experiences, platform design and consumer technologies in shaping how esports is produced and consumed. It reveals how innovations in interactivity and immersion are redefining value creation in the esports ecosystem. The research focus under this theme is centred on the integration of digital technologies, esports adaptation in the metaverse and phygital event experiences (Heidemann et al., 2024).The article co-authored by Baudet and Parmentier (2025) explores the evolving concept of “phygital” experiences (or hybrid experiences) at esports tournaments. Taking a triadic lens involving producers, performers and audiences, this study investigates how consumer experiences are shaped at the intersection of digital immersion and physical presence. Employing ethnographic and netnographic approaches and using data from multiple sources, this study reveals how tensions arise when reconciling the virtual focus of esports performers with the sensory demands of physical audiences. This study provides insights into value creation and destruction in phygital spaces and offers a novel framework for managing hybrid experiences in esports, contributing to the literature on phygital customer experience (Baudet and Parmentier, 2025).Brock and Crawford’s (2024) article examines the broader concept of “esports experience economy”, where consumers engage in experiential consumption that expresses identity and social meaning. Based on a multiple case study of esports tournaments, gaming products and esportswear fashion, the study identifies three experiential characteristics: immersive spectacles, self-work through product customisation in online communities and lifestyle branding via fashion and symbolic affiliation. This study reveals how esports consumption is shaped not only by personal engagement but also by macro-level, market-driven processes. “Experiential consumption” can be understood as a meso-level concept that bridges psychological, economic and cultural dimensions of consumer behaviour. This research study challenges the assumption that competitive play is the primary driver of esports engagement, highlighting instead the authenticity and symbolic value that shape the esports consumer experiences (Brock and Crawford, 2024).Hwang et al.’s (2025) article uses experiments to examine how interactive virtual shopping (IVS) affects players' game enjoyment. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study finds that IVS significantly enhances players' enjoyment of the game. Players derive emotional satisfaction not just from buying virtual items but also from their decision-making and evaluation processes involved in shopping. When players perceive the game environment and their avatars as realistic and relatable, their enjoyment increases, especially when they feel attached to their game characters. Interestingly, this attachment can form regardless of whether the character's gender is congruent with the player's own, suggesting that there is room for identity exploration and inclusivity. This research study provides new insights into how esports players experience virtual consumption and contributes to esports marketing literature by highlighting how immersive shopping experiences can offer real value for both players and brands (Hwang et al., 2025).Mahmoud’s (2025) study investigates the public's beliefs about metaverse esports by analysing user-generated comments on popular YouTube videos. Using a social media data approach, this study employed machine learning techniques and Python programming to collect, clean and process over 40,000 comments. Thematic analysis identifies five key themes: immersive engagement, technical constraints, future possibilities, cost and inclusivity barriers and health considerations. The findings reveal a mix of excitement and scepticism, highlighting public concerns around user comfort, toxicity, financial accessibility and health risks, while also recognising the innovation potential of the metaverse. This study critiques and extends assumptions from various models, including the technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989), uses and gratifications theory (Katz et al., 1974) and diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 2010), by offering novel insights into user expectations and societal readiness for metaverse esports (Mahmoud, 2025).At the micro level, the selected papers provide deep insights into individual player motivations, branding effects and to esports they illustrate how satisfaction and engagement are at the intersection of marketing and article by et al. 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