Effect of Prior Gameplay Experience on the Relationships between Esports Gameplay Intention and Live Esports Streaming Content

This study examined the effect of prior experience with esports gameplay on its antecedents and consequences. Prior experience is considered a significant factor in consumers’ intention and behavior, and in gameplay engagement it is considered the amount of gameplay time. While esports consumers are heterogeneous, only a few esports studies have been conducted. Thus, this study focused on prior esports gameplay experience to explain consumers’ behavior better and examine antecedents, esports gameplay intention, and live esports streaming content across two groups (i.e., high and low frequencies of esports gameplay). Data were collected via an online survey in Amazon Mechanical Turk (M-Turk) from esports consumers who engaged in esports gameplay and live-streaming. One-third of the median cases were excluded to create two groups designated by weekly esports gameplay hours. The results revealed different patterns in the two groups. Specifically, esports gameplay had no effect on engagement in live esports streaming content for consumers who played esport games frequently. However, gameplay intention predicted live esports streaming content engagement successfully in the group who played infrequently. These findings contributed to (1) esports research by demonstrating consumers’ heterogeneity, and the (2) extension of technology acceptance and use research in esports engagement by identifying the role of prior gameplay experience.