Why Toxicity Persists in Esports: Introducing the Concept of Toxicity Legitimacy

Abstract

The presence of toxicity in esports culture has become deeply rooted in and it now concerns both scholars and practitioners. Competitive gaming platforms experience persistent toxic behaviors regardless of increased awareness and intervention efforts. The paper presents the concept of toxicity legitimacy to analyze how toxic behaviors gain acceptance within esports communities. The effort shows how individual actors along with game organizations and sociotechnical infrastructures legitimize and perpetuate toxic behavior. The discussion details theoretical contributions while presenting managerial implications and suggests future empirical validation paths.