Social Engagement in Live Streaming and Esports

Social engagement in live streaming and esports encompasses the interactive behaviours, communal rituals and emotional bonds that form between content creators, audiences and fellow spectators. In live streaming, audiences participate through real-time chat functions, virtual gifting and co-viewing practices that transform passive consumption into a collaborative social experience. Esports extends this dynamic into competitive gaming arenas, where spectatorship combines live commentary, shared emotional highs and organised fan communities both online and at physical events. Across both domains, technological affordances such as low-latency video, integrated chat overlays and platform-specific features have catalysed new forms of participatory culture. These environments foster identity expression, peer recognition and parasocial relationships with micro-celebrities, while also offering avenues for coping, learning and entrepreneurial endeavour. Researchers have highlighted the dual potential of these spaces to promote well-being and to present challenges around addiction, toxic behaviour and unequal social stratification. As live streaming and esports continue to globalise, understanding the drivers, patterns and consequences of social engagement is vital for practitioners, policymakers and scholars seeking to harness the positive impacts and mitigate the risks of these rapidly evolving media phenomena.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Social Engagement in Live Streaming and Esports publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in social engagement in live streaming and esports across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Live streaming: Real-time transmission of video content over the internet, enabling immediate audience interaction through chat, reactions and virtual gifting.

Esports: Organised, competitive video gaming conducted by professional or amateur teams, often broadcast to spectators both online and in person.

Danmu comments: Time-synchronised, horizontal text overlays common on East Asian platforms that float across the video screen, fostering collective annotation and communal engagement.

Social atmospherics: The perceived social environment or cues within an event or platform that influence affective responses and behavioural intentions of participants.

Spectator motives: Psychological drivers—such as entertainment, information seeking and social interaction—that prompt individuals to watch and financially support live streams or esports events.

Virtual community: A network of individuals interacting through digital platforms who share common interests and develop a collective identity over time.

References

1. A Systematic Review of Literature on User Behavior in Video Game Live Streaming. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2020).
2. What motivates audience comments on live streaming platforms?. PLOS ONE (2020).
3. Community-Building on Bilibili: The Social Impact of Danmu Comments. Media and Communication (2022).
4. Esports Spectating Motives and Streaming Consumption: Moderating Effect of Game Genres and Live-Streaming Types. Sustainability (2021).
5. Social Atmospherics, Affective Response, and Behavioral Intention Associated With Esports Events. Frontiers in Psychology (2020).
6. Live Streams on Twitch Help Viewers Cope With Difficult Periods in Life. Frontiers in Psychology (2020).
7. Streamers: The new wave of digital entreprenurship? Extant corpus and future research agenda. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications (2021).