Table 1. Characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis.
| Num | Study | Games | Purpose of study | Participants (n) | Main criteria for experts | Main criteria for controls | Cognitive/motor task | Gender ratio of experts vs. controls (male/female) | Mean age of experts vs. controls | First auther country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Benoit et al. (2020) | OW, CS, COD,Rainbow 6, PUBG, Battlefield 4 | Expertise differences | Professional players(14) vs.Amateurs(16) | From league clubs and with top 500 in game rankings or Grandmaster ranking tie. | College students with unlimited game rankings. | Attention, WAIS-IV Coding, WMS-III Spatial Span, WAIS-IV Digit Span, D-KEFS Towers, D-KEFS Color-Word, Grooved Pegboard. | 14/0 vs.12/4 | 23.66 vs. 25.31 | Canada |
| 2 | Bickmann et al. (2021) | MOBA, FPS | Expertise differences | Professional players(18) vs.Amateurs(21) | Players who make a living from video gaming. | College students who are not making money off of gaming. | SVRT, SART, Choice Reaction time. | 17/1 vs. 19/2 | 22.83 vs. 23.86 | German |
| 3 | Cretenoud et al. (2021) | CSGO | Effects of esports | High-ranking amateurs(15) vs. Low-ranking amateurs(79) | Top 1% with global elite rank tier. | Ranked below 1%. | 1-back, SRT, Freiburg visual acuity, VS. | All male | Total 21.9 | Switzerland |
| 4 | Ding et al. (2018) | LOL | Expertise differences | Professional players(10) vs. Semi-professional trainees(10) vs. Amateurs(20) | Professional and trainee players both from esports gaming clubs. | College students with 300 or more games played. | SRT, flanker task, VS, MOT, motor control, | All male | 21 vs.18 vs. 20 | China |
| 5 | R Core Team (2022) | LOL; CSGO | Expertise differences | Professional players(10) vs. Amateurs players(10) vs. Novice(5) | From two professional e-sport teams. | Never competed in professional game. | Change detection test, Go/No-go, Iowa Gambling Task, MR, TOL, Rotation, Situation Awareness, Time Wall, VS, Dexterity, APM, Pursuit Rotor. | All male | 21.5 vs.24.9 vs. 28.4 | Sweden |
| 6 | Gao (2019) | LOL | Expertise differences | Professional players(18) vs. Amateurs(20) vs. Novice(17) | From the Collegiate League Championship Team. | Amateur: college students who didn’t participate in tournaments; Novice: college students who never or very little video game experience. | SRT,movement anticipation,VS. | 15/3 vs. 16/4 vs. 11/6 | 21.25 vs. 20.56 | China |
| 7 | Kang et al. (2020) | LOL, OW,BG,SC | Expertise differences | Professional players(55) vs. Amateurs(60) | From professional e-sport teams. | Healthy control who gameplay time less than 30 h/week. | TOL, MR. | All male | 21.3 vs. 21.3 | Korea |
| 8 | Kim, Kim & Wu (2023) | SC | Expertise differences | Professional players(8) vs. Amateurs(8) | From professional e-sport teams. | College amateurs who have never played a strategy game. | Anticipation timing, Peripheral Perception, Eye movement and coordination. | All male | 23.8 vs. 24.7 | Korea |
| 9 | Li et al. (2020) | LOL | Expertise differences | High-ranking amateurs(35) vs. Low-ranking amateurs(35) | Ranked in the top 0.15% (Master and above). | Ranked after 0.15% (Iron-Diamond). | Continuous performance test, Stroop-switching task. | 33/2 vs. 31/4 | 22.8 vs. 23.1 | China |
| 10 | Phillips (2023) | Fighting; Rhythm Games | Expertise differences | Professional players(49) vs. Amateurs(37) | From professional e-sport teams. | Ranked after 1%. | UCMRT, Serial Reaction Task, CBTT, SVRT, SART, Paced motor timing , Sustain attention. | All male | 23.88 vs. 22.94 | USA |
| 11 | Pluss et al. (2020) | LOL,HOS,OW,PUBG | Expertise differences | Professional(25) vs. Recreational(25) vs. Novice(25) | From professional e-sport teams. | Amateurs see game as leisure activity; novice with no experience in esports. | SRT, Selective reaction time, Manual dexterity, switch task. | 25/0 vs. 21/4 vs. 18/7 | 22.05 vs. 25.80 vs. 24.69 | Australia |
| 12 | Röhlcke et al. (2018) | DOTA2 | Effects of esports | High-ranking amateurs(17) vs. Low-ranking amateurs(287) | Ranked in the top 1%. | Ranked after 1%. | WM Operation Span,WM Spatial Span, WM Digit Span. | All male | 23.35 vs. 22.41 | Sweden |
| 13 | Tanaka et al. (2013) | Guilty Gear | Expertise differences | Professional players(17) vs. Amateurs(33) | Participate in international or national competitions. | Had negligible or no video game experience. | Visual WM Task. | All male | 24.1 vs. 22.4 | Japan |
| 14 | Valls-Serrano et al. (2022) | LOL | Expertise differences | Professional players(20) vs. Amateurs(30) vs. Novice(20) | From the UCAM esports club primary and secondary team and in top 1% ranking. | Amateurs: Ranked after 1% and MOBA is their main game. Novice was playing video games less than 1 h per week. | Antisaccade Task, Number-Letter Task, Stop Signal Task, CBTT. | All male | 21.8 vs. 22.0 vs. 22.9 | Spain |
| 15 | Wang, Zhang & Li (2022) | LOL, PUBG, PUBG: Mobile, Artifact, Popkart. | Expertise differences | Professional players(33) vs. Amateurs(48) | Participate in a primary and secondary gaming league. | Casual players who are not participating in open tournaments. | 2D-MOT, 3D-MOT. | Both groups contain males and females | 22.7 vs. Unrecord | China |
Notes.
Game, Heroes of the storm
- BG
- Battleground
- SC
- StarCraft
- LOL
- League of Legends
- OW
- Overwatch
- CS
- Counter Strike
- CSGO
- Counter Strike: Global Offensive
- COD
- Call of Duty; Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds. cognitive task
Cogation
- APM
- Action per minute
- CBTT
- Corsi block tapping test
- MOT
- Multi-object tracking
- MR
- Mental Rotation
- UCMRT
- University of California Matrix Reasoning Task
- VS
- Visual search
- WM
- working memory
- SART
- Simple Acoustic Reaction Time
- SRT
- Simple reaction time
- SVRT
- Simple Visual Reaction Time