What Do Competitive Players Do With Their Settings? A Multi-Game Esports Configuration Survey

Competitive PC games offer dozens of graphics configuration options that affect both visual quality and system performance, yet we know little about how players actually configure their settings. We present a multi-game survey study covering 14 esports titles across five genres, collecting both player-reported preferences and actual game configuration files from participants’ machines. Of the 37 respondents who answered the configuration priority question, we find that 70% of competitive players prioritize frame rate over visual quality; analysis of the 14 uploaded configuration files shows VSYNC disabled in 86% of cases. These patterns hold across tactical shooters, MOBAs, battle royales, and other genres, suggesting a consistent performance-first approach to configuration across the competitive gaming landscape.