TOMSK, Jan 17 –
RIA Tomsk. Big data analysts of Tomsk State University (TSU) have studied the profiles of more than 5.6 million
people on the social network VKontakte and compiled a digital portrait of an
eSports fan, the university's website reported on Monday.
It is specified
that the research was conducted by employees of the TSU Center for Applied Big
Data Analysis. They identified more than 30 thousand communities having the
word "eSports" ("cybersport") in the title or description
in VKontakte. Communities that did not fit the theme and were irrelevant to the
study were sifted out, leaving 752 communities for analysis.
"They were
classified according to thematic categories: team groups, news and
"near-eSports" publics, betting on computer games, federations and
leagues and computer clubs. The authors of the study analyzed the profiles of
more than 5.6 million subscribers of the found communities," the report
said.
An analysis of
the socio-demographic characteristics of subscribers showed that 89% of
participants of eSports communities are males. As for age, the largest number
of users is in the 18-35 age bracket. Their main mass is concentrated in the
European and central parts of the Russian Federation.
© пресс-служба Томского госуниверситета
"Women more
often subscribe to eSports team publics than others, which may indicate their
interest in particular teams in eSports. For example, in the Imperial Pro Gaming
community, the share of women among subscribers was 41%. Women are less common
in communities devoted to federations and betting," the university's press
service said.
It adds that
analysts are planning another study. Together with psychologists they will
study how keenness on eSports affects academic performance and paint a
psychological profile of the players. If the first study used the analysis of
big data, the second will be a formalized interview, that is used sociological
methodology.
Earlier it was
reported that eSports is part of a new direction of socio-humanitarian
engineering at TSU within the framework of the Priority 2030 program. The
university is studying eSports in three aspects - as a sport, as a tool to
influence cognitive abilities, and as an element of impact on a person's
psycho-emotional state.