Supporting player wellbeing and building sustainable career pathways in esports

This exploratory study seeks to identify challenges, barriers, and holistic wellbeing needs of esports players during and after their careers, based on the human wellbeing framework, which includes physical, psychological, cultural, social, economic, and governance domains. By providing empirical evidence on critical areas, the study encourages the esports industry and its stakeholders to prioritise players' wellbeing, thereby building sustainable career pathways in esports. By employing an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, the study was conducted in three phases: (a) qualitative data collection and analysis through two focus groups (n = 5 and n = 3, respectively) and one semi-structured interview; (b) development of a new questionnaire based on the findings from Phase 1 and grounded in the chosen theoretical framework; and (c) administration of the developed questionnaire, which gathered quantitative data from 393 esports players across all competitive levels (n = 393). The findings highlight specific challenges, barriers, and needs related to the six domains of human wellbeing, offering significant insights from esports players on holistic wellbeing for esports players. Importantly, the findings revealed significant differences in participants' experiences of esports based on gender and career level. As a result, this study contributes to both theory and practice by deepening our knowledge and understanding of esports players' holistic wellbeing needs, which in turn supports the sustainability of esports careers. The implications can shape the path for sustainable growth within the industry by focusing on the wellbeing of esports players, providing practical guidance for industry and stakeholder decision making.