The Impact of Electronic Sports on Society: A Scoping Review

Background. E-sports are actively gaining popularity in the modern world and this sphere is developing in many areas of society and involving more and more people. Moreover, within the past years e-sports have been continuously influencing people's attitude and involvement into traditional types of sport leading to an unprecedented increase in the number of participants of e-competitions among various age groups. Purpose. The main purpose of this review is to study the impact of e-sports on society, to define its challenges to traditional sport and to find out how it can in a certain extent initiates a change of paradigm in sport in general. Materials and methods. An analysis of scientific literature was carried out using the Scopus database, as a result of which 57 works were found. Of these, 30 articles were suitable for studying the question posed and were included in the review. Results. As a result of the thematic synthesis of the documents, 11 spheres of society were identified, on which e-sports has a greater impact: Health, Psychological state, Skill development, Sports participation and inspiration, New Technologies, Entertainment, Media content, Economic development, Ecology, Tourism, Equality. Conclusion. According to the results of the review, it should be concluded that esports has both a positive and negative impact on society. Being a popular field, e-sports has a large audience, which leads to economic, technological and media development. Playing sport can develop communicative, cognitive, and fine motor skills, but can also lead to physical and mental health risk.