From Play to Idols: How Superfans Shape Esports Ecologies

This study examines how superfans shape the League of Legends esports ecosystem, shifting attention from audience motivation and consumption toward the high-intensity, organised participation that influences visibility, discourse, and stakeholder behaviour. Drawing on a mixed-methods design that combines a bilingual online survey of 385 respondents, the majority of whom were also LoL players, with thirteen semi-structured interviews across Chinese and Western contexts, the research treats superfans as a behavioural category defined by the intensity and organisation of engagement rather than as a fixed identity. Analysis was conducted through SPSS for quantitative data and thematic analysis for qualitative material.

Findings indicate that superfan practices rest on three forms of input, namely time, emotional, and monetary investment, reinforced by strong loyalty. These inputs support co-viewing, intensive match tracking, translation work, highlight circulation, and moderation, activities that generate pleasure through spectatorship, gameplay-informed appreciation of skill, affective labour, and belonging. The authors propose a Superfan Influence Model with four pathways: visibility amplification through coordinated platform activity, social coordination through organised projects and fundraising, economic signalling through clustered spending, and norm-setting through moderation and boundary-work.

Cross-cultural comparison reveals notable variation. Chinese participants described more ritualised, institutionalised, and emotionally intensified practices influenced by K-pop and J-pop fandom, including coordinated comment management, while Western participants more often described individualised or loosely networked participation. The study contributes an empirically grounded model of superfan influence and argues that superfans should be understood as culturally embedded actors with implications for platform governance and organisational communication, with the model offered as a starting point for comparative work across other esports titles.