Levelling up esports research: Mapping the past, present, and future of a thriving digital arena

Abstract

Electronic sports, or esports, is a rapidly expanding industry. While esports are relatively new, their attractiveness has provoked significant scientific production. The objectives of the present study are to identify the topics that have been analysed to date, the advances that have taken place in knowledge of the activity, the emerging trends and to propose future research directions. A bibliometric analysis of the relevant scientific production was undertaken through performance and co-word analyses of a database of the 1,097 articles published on esports and indexed in Scopus. The results identified six major thematic esports-related research areas: live streaming, marketing, gender, gambling, health and sports in general. Future research might examine the motivations for watching live streamings, their commercial exploitation by sponsoring companies, the possible relationship between esports and gambling and how the consumption/practise of esports affects health.