A bibliometric analysis using Vosviewer of publications on esports

Abstract

The emergence of electronic sports as a competitive arena in the realm of video gaming has not only garnered substantial popularity among players and spectators, but it has also piqued the interest of academic researchers across diverse disciplines. This study will undertake a theoretical assessment of esports, scrutinizing it within the framework of motivation, consumer behavior, and experience. Furthermore, an analysis of 206 publications from the Web of Science (WOS) database, spanning the fields of tourism, business, and management from 2011 to 2023, will be conducted using Vosviewer. The citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, and bibliographic coupling analyses revealed that the most cited authors in the field are Hamari and Sjöblom. The countries leading in terms of the number of publications on the topic are the USA, Australia, and the UK, in that order, while the countries with the most citations are Finland, the USA, and New Zealand, respectively. In the keyword analysis, terms such as “esports”, “video games”, “electronic sports”, “esports gameplay”, and “uses and gratifications” were prominent. Upon examining the sources, the “International Journal of Sports Marketing” emerged as the leading source in terms of the number of publications, while the “Internet Research” journal had the highest number of citations. The findings of this study are significant as they provide valuable insights for researchers interested in esports.