ESport:A Comparison Of Spectator Motives Between Genres And Global Regions

An important objective in the field of esport consumer behaviour is assessing the motivation of spectators to watch esport.The purpose of this thesis is to analyse consumer motivations for spectating competitive esport in a comparative manner.It is proposed that consumer motivations for spectating esports vary among different esport genres and global regions.Three hypotheses were formulated to assess the difference in motivational patterns between esport spectators between different esport genres and among different global regions.The research is quantitative in nature and a survey method was selected to assess motivation among esport audiences in both live and an online environment using the Motivational Scale for Sport Consumption on a sample of 2027 spectators.The results illustrated the salient motivations of esport consumers among all genres and regions and further indicates that there are statistically significant differences between consumer motivations for spectating esports between global genres and regions.The results were then compared with literature that has already studied consumer motivations in an esport setting and a convergence was found in several areas of sport consumption.Patterns on several constructs are in convergence with established literature on the subject notably in constructs such a Player Skill,Drama and Acquisition of Knowledge.A negative motivating factor was also in convergence with previous research in the domain of Physical Attractiveness.The research also illustrated a difference in consumer motivations between male and female respondents,furthermore a difference regarding spectatorship and fandom impacted show different results in the questions measuring spectator team identification.This study is among a few of its nature and character in esport literature.Esport managers and event producers can benefit directly from having an informed view of the nuances of esport audiences.Furthermore,this research can serve to validate the results of future esport consumer behaviour researchers and contributes toward esports being recognized as a form of sports.