A milestone in the era of esports: The Olympics through the lens of virtual reality

Abstract

Whether the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ever includes electronic sports (esports) in the official program of the Olympic Games, the popularity of competitive gaming continues to grow—sports present a modern audience powerhouse the world cannot fail to notice. By the end of 2025, the number of viewers in esports is expected to reach 640.8 million and revenue growth of 1,866.2 billion U.S. dollars (Gough, 2022). Over 170 colleges in the United States have established varsity esports teams and offer esports players' educational opportunities, including partial or full scholarships (Lyman, 2022). Esports has also found its place in schools, largely influencing the youth (Rothwell and Shaffer, 2019). Additionally, numerous NBA teams have entered the esports race, and even Usain Bolt owns an esports team (Gardner, 2022), perhaps better illustrating esports' global prevalence. In 2021, the IOC took a step closer to the digital world, creating the Olympic Virtual Series (OVS). The main objective was to promote the development of virtual sports games and engage with the gaming communities worldwide. The OVS consisted of five different games: baseball (Powerful Pro Baseball 2020), cycling (Zwift), rowing (World rowing, using a rowing machine), sailing (Virtual Regatta), and motor racing (Gran Turismo). The IOC fused traditional elements of sport physicality and video games to uniquely incorporate physical activity (PA) to new audiences, connecting “e” and sports through the Olympic Movement (Palaar, 2021). Opposingly, the 2022 Asian Games (postponed to 2023 due to COVID-19) in Hangzhou will be the first official continental competition to include eight esports games played on computers, consoles, and even smartphone devices (Daniels, 2021). While these actions by the IOC certainly took cognizance of esports and presented it to a world audience, none of the included games utilized virtual reality (VR) technology. Compared to the vast library of traditional esports games (e.g., Dota 2, League of Legends, Apex, CS:GO), VR games have a small selection of titles—which has affected the global VR prevalence in the gaming world. However, an excellent example is the VR game Onward, which (according to players) brought new features and a higher skill ceiling than traditional games, in addition to the physical embodiment and “immersiveness” for players (Turkay et al., 2021). VR is defined as an immersive and multisensory experience for the user, with the support of multimedia components such as VR headset and body tracking sensors (Gigante, 1993). As opposed to the 360° VR, which relies on the video recorded by the actual camera and then implemented into the system—this gives users a more realistic view and experience. However, both rely on the physical headset device with or without motion controllers. VR and the gaming industry joint became more evident as VR became a globally more available technology (e.g., Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation) on the market. While the VR player base is not as big as Dota 2 or CS:GO, VR esports have a promising future with exponential growth, forecasted to reach 2.4 billion U.S dollars by 2024 (Clement, 2022). Besides games, VR technology has wide application in the rehabilitation of specific populations, psychology, psychiatry, education, and even sports performance (Lange et al., 2010; Salem and Elokda, 2014; Izard et al., 2018; Michalski et al., 2019; Park et al., 2019; Kaplan et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2021).