Why do people watch others play video games? An empirical study on the motivations of Twitch users

Sjblom, Max; Hamari, Juho

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.10.019

Cited by 437 publications

(316 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Socializing with peers has been shown to be of great importance in traditional sports (Dietz-Uhler et al, 2000;Eastman and Land, 1997;Gantz, 1981;Gantz and Wenner, 1991;Melnick, 1993), and also within eSports and playing video games (Hamilton et al, 2014;Sherry et al, 2006). In the context of media usage research, social interaction has also been shown to be of great importance (Chen, 2011;Hamilton et al, 2014;Pai and Arnott, 2013;Papacharissi and Mendelson, 2010;Sjöblom and Hamari, 2016;Whiting and Williams, 2013). eSports spectating is commonly connected to an online chat that can be used to comment on the events of the game, and also as a way to cheer for favorite teams and players.…”

Section: Appreciation Of Player Skills Is Positively Association Withmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…UGT has especially been used within research in online contexts (LaRose and Eastin, 2005;Papacharissi and Mendelson, 2010;Papacharissi and Rubin, 2000;Whiting & Williams, 2013), including online games (Wu et al, 2010), Facebook (Joinson, 2008), video streaming (Cha 2014, Chiang, andHsiao, 2014;Sjöblom and Hamari, 2016), Twitter (Johnson and Yang, 2009;Chen, 2011), and fantasy sports (Farquhar and Meeds, 2007). Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is a theoretical approach to understanding why and how people consume or use different kinds of media to satisfy different kinds of needs.…”

Section: The Motivations For Esports Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What Is eSports and Why Do People Watch It?

Hamari¹,

Sjöblom

2017

SSRN Journal

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Purpose: In this study we investigate why do people spectate eSports on the internet. We define eSports (electronic sports) as a form of sports where the primary aspects of the sport are facilitated by electronic systems; the input of players and teams as well as the output of the eSports system are mediated by humancomputer interfaces. In more practical terms, eSports refer to competitive video gaming (broadcasted on the internet). Methodology:We employed the MSSC (Motivations Scale for Sports Consumption) which is one of the most widely applied measurement instruments for sports consumption in general. The questionnaire was designed and pre-tested before distributing to target respondents (N=888). The reliability and validity of the instrument both met the commonly accepted guidelines. The model was assessed first by examining its measurement model and then the structural model. Findings:The results indicate that escapism, acquiring knowledge about the games being played, novelty and eSports athlete aggressiveness were found to positively predict eSport spectating frequency.Originality: During recent years, eSports (electronic sports) and video game streaming have become rapidly growing forms of new media in the internet driven by the growing provenance of (online) games and online broadcasting technologies. Today, hundreds of millions of people spectate eSports. The present investigation presents a large study on gratification-related determinants of why people spectate eSports on the internet.Moreover, the study proposes a definition for eSports and further discusses how eSports can be seen as a form of sports.

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Section: Appreciation Of Player Skills Is Positively Association Withmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Motivations For Esports Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Is eSports and Why Do People Watch It?

Hamari¹,

Sjöblom

2017

SSRN Journal

Self Cite

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“…It is clear that all UG needs contribute in some way to the way users watch streams, and that these UG needs also affect users' choice of stream (Sjoblom & Hamari, 2016;Sjoblom et al, 2017). Beyond how stream type and content (such as genre) affect the UG needs for Twitch, there is the effect of stream size and possibly other factors playing into users' stream choices.…”

Section: Ugt and Twitchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The claim is that this ranking comes from the technical difficulty of games, Casual being the easiest to understand and Competitive being the most difficult and technically intensive (Churchill & Xu, 2016). However, Sjoblom et al (2017) tudy that when factoring game genre and stream/culture type together, Competitive stream types offer more, and more significant UG need satisfaction than Speed running stream types, indicating that perhaps the Competitive community should be larger ations with "social interaction, learning and entertainment" as "important aspects of spectatorship" (Sjoblom & Hamari, 2016). Twitch UG satisfaction was further investigated by Sjoblom et al (2017) where the unique characteristics m type were related to UG needs, revealing that the unique characteristics of game genres and stream types watched were correlated with different motivations.…”

Section: Ugt and Twitchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In UG theory, users are considered to be a conscious 'fulfillment seeker'. That is, users knowingly and self-reflectively seek out media that will satisfy their personal motivations according to certain guidelines as demonstrated in Table 1 Overall, Twitch displays the ability to satisfy UG motiv and entertainment" as "important aspects of spectatorship" (Sjoblom & Hamari, 2016 Overall, Twitch displays the ability to satisfy UG motivations with "social interaction, learning and entertainment" as "important aspects of spectatorship" (Sjoblom & Hamari, 2016). Twitch UG satisfaction was further investigated by Sjoblom et al (2017) where the unique characteristics m type were related to UG needs, revealing that the unique characteristics of game genres and stream types watched were correlated with different motivations.…”

Section: Ugt and Twitchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Computer Science & Information Technology

2018

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). The conferences attracted many local and international delegates, presenting a balanced mixture of intellect from the East and from the West.The goal of this conference series is to bring together researchers and practitioners from academia and industry to focus on understanding computer science and information technology and to establish new collaborations in these areas. Authors are invited to contribute to the conference by submitting articles that illustrate research results, projects, survey work and industrial experiences describing significant advances in all areas of computer science and information technology.The CCSEA-2018, NCOM-2018, AIFU-2018, DKMP-2018, EMSA-2018, SIPRO-2018, SEA-2018 Committees rigorously invited submissions for many months from researchers, scientists, engineers, students and practitioners related to the relevant themes and tracks of the workshop. This effort guaranteed submissions from an unparalleled number of internationally recognized top-level researchers. All the submissions underwent a strenuous peer review process which comprised expert reviewers. These reviewers were selected from a talented pool of Technical Committee members and external reviewers on the basis of their expertise. The papers were then reviewed based on their contributions, technical content, originality and clarity. The entire process, which includes the submission, review and acceptance processes, was done electronically. All these efforts undertaken by the Organizing and Technical Committees led to an exciting, rich and a high quality technical conference program, which featured high-impact presentations for all attendees to enjoy, appreciate and expand their expertise in the latest developments in computer network and communications research.In closing, CCSEA-2018, NCOM-2018, AIFU-2018, DKMP-2018, EMSA-2018, SIPRO-2018, SEA-2018 brought together researchers, scientists, engineers, students and practitioners to exchange and share their experiences, new ideas and research results in all aspects of the main workshop themes and tracks, and to discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted. The book is organized as a collection of papers from the CCSEA-2018, NCOM-2018, AIFU-2018, DKMP-2018, EMSA-2018, SIPRO-2018, SEA-2018 We would like to thank the General and Program Chairs, organization staff, the members of the Technical Program Committees and external reviewers for their excellent and tireless work. We sincerely wish that all attendees benefited scientifically from the conference and wish them every success in their research. It is the humble wish of the conference organizers that the professional dialogue among the researchers, scientists, engineers, students and educators continues beyond the event and that the friendships and collaborations forged will linger and prosper for many years to come.

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Freedom and giving in game streams: A Foucauldian exploration of tips and donations on Twitch

Yoganathan

Osburg

Stevens

2021

Psychology and Marketing

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Twitch is a full‐fledged marketplace for game consumption, where gameplay is live streamed by players for the benefit of viewers/followers. Using Foucault's notions of freedom as a practice, we provide a psychosocial understanding of game stream engagement, and especially, user motivations for tipping streamers or donating to charity (i.e., “giving”). Following a netnographic approach, we analyse contributions to a large online forum and data gathered from 15 focus groups. We find that giving arises as an outcome of users exercising their freedom, whilst negotiating personal difficulties, for social gratification (e.g., status among peers), self‐determination (i.e., feeling control over one's life), and self‐extension (i.e., feeling affinity with others to achieve ideal self). By providing opportunities for self‐extension and self‐determination, which lead to better connectivity and stronger community support compared to social media, Twitch enables users to “give freely” (i.e., without obligation or compunction). Consequently, Twitch offers scope for more effective and mutually beneficial means of fundraising than traditional nonprofit marketing strategies, particularly by reaching younger target groups. Ultimately, the paper integrates three widely used theories under one (Foucauldian) metatheoretical perspective and highlights the central role of freedom in understanding game stream user engagement. Practical implications for nonprofit fundraising are also considered.

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Why do people watch others play video games? An empirical study on the motivations of Twitch users

Cited by 437 publications

References 42 publications

What Is eSports and Why Do People Watch It?

What Is eSports and Why Do People Watch It?

Computer Science & Information Technology

Freedom and giving in game streams: A Foucauldian exploration of tips and donations on Twitch

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