Game On: The Rise of the eSports Middle Kingdom

Abstract

This article examines the rise of eSports in China in

Evaluation of the tourist perception of the spectator in an eSport event

“…Although eSports do not depend on the physical abilities of the participants in the way traditional sports do (e.g. basketball, football or hockey), eSports tourism can still be evaluated as a type of sports tourism, according to Gibson (2003), because eSports events attract the largest audiences in the world (Pe, Čičin-ain, & Blažević, 2017;Yu, 2018) and are a tourist attraction for any event sports organisation (Yenişehirlioğlu et al, 2018).…”

Self-enterprising eSports: Meritocracy, precarity, and disposability of eSports players in China

“…However, since then, China’s eSports market has run like a high-revving engine. The Chinese government has encouraged the growth of the eSports industry for its significant contribution to the digital economy and its ability to craft nationalism and soft power (Yu, 2017b, 2018). Although China is a relative latecomer to the new playing field of the digital economy and the specific eSports market, it is undergoing a rapid transformation from a manufacturing powerhouse into an innovative nation because of its state-centred approach to economic development in diverse digital economic sectors, including the eSports industry.…”

“…Therefore, China’s gaming and eSports market quickly overtook those of South Korea, North America, and Europe to become the world’s largest gaming market in 2009 and the world’s largest eSports market in 2016 (Yu, 2018). A recent report by iResearch (2019) stated that China’s eSports market is estimated to reach RMB 113 billion (about USD 14.12 billion) in 2019, and RMB 135.3 billion (about USD 16.9 billion) in 2020.…”

“…According to a recent report (Gamelook, 2019), China’s eSports economy was worth RMB 91.2 billion (about USD 13.63 billion) by 2018 and was made up of an eSports audience of 428 million, and 443,000 professional practitioners. However, there have been very few academic studies on eSports in China (Lu, 2016; Yu, 2018) that address eSports from a cultural perspective. Furthermore, from the ‘reform and opening-up’ period (1978−present), China has employed a neoliberal development strategy and has become one of the most representative neoliberal countries in the world (Harvey, 2007; Rofel, 2007; Yan, 2009).…”

Identity transformation, stigma power, and mental wellbeing of Chinese eSports professional players

“…Since this time, the expanding eSports culture has produced a vast cohort of video-game players in China whose peak age ranges between 16 and 22 years (HRSS, 2019). Starting around 1999, with the first unofficial online StarCraft championship, eSports gained official recognition in China, and China's General Administration of Sport approved eSports as the country's 99th official sport in November 2003 (Yu, 2018). On 19 June 2004, the official governing body for sport in China, the Sports Ministry, and the All China Sports Federation (ACSF), launched the First China E-sports Games (CEG) (Lu, 2016).…”