Conclusion

After completing this study, it was intriguing to see how the research compliments the studies previously done on the esports industry. Prior research highlighted the recent rise of the esports industry, as well as playing and watching motivations, esports consumers habits, and the effect COVID-19 had on the esports landscape. This study represents a deep insight into motivations and habits of esports consumers, and shows there was a clear rise in esports consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The results suggest that COVID-19 may have been the catalyst for many esports consumers to get into the game, as their participation remained after pandemic lockdowns ended. 

However, more research should be done on current esports playing habits, and why subjects esports participation continued after the pandemic. Many research points to the esports industry sticking around for years to come, with a rise in worldwide players and economic gains, as well as mass investment by some of the biggest companies in the world. But, there is no telling that the boom that esports has seen in recent years is here to stay, so researchers should continue to find out if people will stay committed to their current playing habits. This is especially because results showed that many subjects continued to play esports after the pandemic, but their hours of participation went down.