From profession to play: hedonic and eudaimonic enjoyment in professional esports

This paper examines how professional esports players continue to experience enjoyment when gaming becomes a professional career. Drawing on Ryan and Deci’s framework of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being and its extension to media entertainment research, the study develops an adapted Hedonic and Eudaimonic Model to conceptualize the multifaceted nature of enjoyment in professional esports. Through a synthesis of illustrative cases of four top-tier League of Legends players and related existing scholarship, seven distinct forms of enjoyment are identified: including three hedonic enjoyments (pleasure of gameplay, thrill of competition, enjoyment of professional identity) and four eudaimonic enjoyments (psychological growth, self-actualization, social fulfillment, pursuit of meaning). Overall, the study provides a conceptual framework for understanding enjoyment in professional esports, clarifies the distinction between motivation and enjoyment, and extends the hedonic – eudaimonic model to a professional gaming context, filling a gap in research on the non-exploitative and leisure aspects of esports.