Clustering Esports Gameplay Consumers via Game Experiences

Abstract

This study focuses on “game experiences” in the context of esports gameplay consumption and aims to identify adequate consumer groups based on their esports experience including perceptions of gameplay, watching, and purchasing hardware. The purpose of this study is to identify adequate consumer groups through consumer segmentation. Based on the literature review, a matrix of esports gameplay was proposed based on high/low esports gameplay, viewing esports, and hardware enthusiasm. Four esports gameplay consumer groups are proposed (all-around gamer, conventional player, observer, recreational gamer) based on their prior esports experiences (esports gameplay, viewing esports content via media, and hardware enthusiasm). A total of 699 usable observations were initially collected by the online survey. Eventually, 508 observations were retained (127 for each group) for multivariate analysis of variance and subsequent univariate tests. The findings indicated the four esports gameplay consumer groups were empirically supported. Furthermore, this study found similarities and differences for each group based on the six antecedents of esports gameplay intention. The findings indicated hedonic motivation and price value might be considered general factors that may be applied to all esports consumers. Contrarily, the findings indicated that social influence, habit, effort expectancy, and flow might be suitable for tailored marketing strategies targeting esports consumer groups. Theoretically, the suggested esports experience will contribute to the growing body of knowledge aimed at understanding esports consumers' behavior through the consistent clustering of behavioral prior experience. Practically, the proposed esports consumers' clustering will contribute to more efficient marketing, with spending on more targeted marketing leading to effectively reaching the right people.

Esports for development? Exploring esports player profiles and their development and well-being outcomes

“…By incorporating questions about whether they play esports games, we deliberately selected survey respondents to ensure that the results of the current study would be more pertinent to the target group intended for this paper. The demographics of the study participants effectively represented the profile of esports consumers, as similarly reported in Jang et al (2021b) and Nielsen (2018). To describe the participants' demographic characteristics, 27.2% identified as female (n 5 88), 70.4% as male (n 5 228) and 2.5% as other (i.e.…”

“…While there has been ongoing debate about whether esports meet the Esports for development criteria for physical skills and the development of general sport involvement (Cunningham et al, 2018), esports require manual dexterity, fine motor skills and physiological readings, which demonstrate the physical skill component of esports similar to general sports (Funk et al, 2018). Playing esports requires time, effort, skills and commitment (Jang et al, 2021b), indicating one's active involvement in esports. According to Allport (1945), involvement can be present from six domains of activity: (1) educational, (2) familial, (3) political, (4) recreational, (5) theological and (6) vocational.…”

“…Understanding segments and clusters of esports players based on their involvement patterns is crucial to better serve their needs and wants (Jang et al ., 2021b). Currently, the esports market offers various game formats and genres that require different knowledge and skills, such as shooting games, real-time strategy games, sport simulation games and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games.…”

Esports Athletes on a Team or Club Are More Physically Active and Less Sedentary Than Equally Experienced, Casual Video Gamers

“…Data were collected from within the United States via an online survey from a crowd-sourcing web service (Mechanical Turk henceforth M-Turk). Previous studies examining esports have used M-Turk to collect data (Jang, Byon, Baker, et al, 2021;Jang, Byon, Pecoraro, et al, 2021) as it has been shown to provide quality data that are reasonably representative (McCredie & Morey, 2019). Ethical approval for our study was obtained by the institutional review board.…”

What Constitutes ‘Gaming’ in the Gaming Disorder?: Observations and Recommendations

“…Observers too have been conceptualized as a type of gamers. 56 The observer is described as a fan who frequently watches e-sports events or streamers’ e-sports gameplay but whose e-sports gameplay is not equaled by their viewing consumption . While such categorization has primarily originated in the context of e-sports consumption, it seems relevant from the medical perspective as well.…”