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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Digital Games and Media

Digital Games and Media is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 36k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the social and psychological aspects of online gaming, including motivations for play, gender dynamics, virtual economies, live streaming, and the impact of video games on individuals and society. It delves into topics such as gamer identity, toxic technocultures, labor in online games, and the portrayal of gender roles in video games.

  • Online Gaming
  • Video Games
  • Esports
  • Gender Dynamics
  • Social Interaction
  • Virtual Worlds
  • Gamer Identity
  • Live Streaming
  • Game Culture
  • Stereotypes
Research works
36k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+20%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
32% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Digital Games and Media

Which countries lead Digital Games and Media research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.8k and 701 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.8k works
  2. 2 China 701 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 668 works
  4. 4 Germany 460 works
  5. 5 Türkiye 349 works
  6. 6 Spain 343 works
  7. 7 Brazil 340 works
  8. 8 Australia 328 works
  9. 9 Canada 315 works
  10. 10 India 304 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 32.5%China: 12.4%United Kingdom: 11.8%Germany: 8.2%6 others listed: 35.1%32%largest
United States1,831 · 32.5%China701 · 12.4%United Kingdom668 · 11.8%Germany460 · 8.2%6 others listed1,980 · 35.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Digital Games and Media research?

By volume in 2022-now, American Society of Genealogists publishes the most Digital Games and Media research, followed by Vincennes University and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 American Society of GenealogistsUnited States 100 works
  2. 2 Vincennes UniversityUnited States 52 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 49 works
  4. 4 The Institute for Education Research 48 works
  5. 5 Tampere UniversityFinland 37 works
  6. 6 Film IndependentUnited States 33 works
  7. 7 University of TorontoCanada 31 works
  8. 8 Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 30 works
  9. 9 Swinburne University of TechnologyAustralia 27 works
  10. 10 The University of SydneyAustralia 27 works

Who are the leading researchers in Digital Games and Media?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Digital Games and Media include Richard M. Ryan, Dan J. Stein and Florian Fischer.

  1. 1 Richard M. Ryan United States 395k citations
  2. 2 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations
  3. 3 Florian Fischer Germany 257k citations
  4. 4 Jonathan A C Sterne United Kingdom 188k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Digital Games and Media?

The most cited paper in Digital Games and Media is "From game design elements to gamefulness" (Sebastian Deterding, Dan Dixon, Rilla Khaled et al., 2011), with 8,256 citations. Next come "What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy" (6,681) and "Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide" (5,554).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 From game design elements to gamefulness Sebastian Deterding, Dan Dixon, Rilla Khaled et al. Conference paper 28 Sep 2011 8,256
2 What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy James Paul Gee · Education + Training Open access May 2004 6,681
3 Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide Curt Carbonell · The Journal of Popular Culture 21 Jul 2007 5,554
4 I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience Alice Emily Marwick, danah boyd · New Media & Society 7 Jul 2010 4,584
5 Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers Clifford Nass, Youngme Moon · Journal of Social Issues 2000 3,941
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Digital Games and Media research done?

The largest centres of Digital Games and Media research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Beijing (China), Sharon (United States) and Melbourne (Australia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Vincennes, Sharon and Toronto.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 143 works
  2. 2 BeijingChina 118 works
  3. 3 SharonUnited States 100 works
  4. 4 MelbourneAustralia 98 works
  5. 5 IstanbulTürkiye 87 works
  6. 6 New YorkUnited States 78 works
  7. 7 Los AngelesUnited States 73 works
  8. 8 MadridSpain 70 works
  9. 9 TokyoJapan 69 works
  10. 10 ParisFrance 66 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VincennesUS · 52.1 works233×
  2. SharonUS · 100.0 works107×
  3. Toronto48.6 works87×
  4. TampereFI · 38.8 works13×
  5. Santa CruzUS · 20.1 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Digital Games and Media than the world average.

See Digital Games and Media on the map

Where is the best place to study Digital Games and Media?

Among universities, judged by research, Tampere University, Clemson University and University of Washington score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 24.02%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Clemson UniversityUniversity of Amster…University of Washin…Tampere University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Tampere UniversityFinland 73.021.1%15.5×37 +25.1%
2Clemson UniversityUnited States 64.238.4%5.5×13 +54.3%
3University of WashingtonUnited States 61.734.1%2.2×20 +32.2%
4University of AmsterdamNetherlands 60.736.4%4.0×19 -18.7%
5Manchester Metropolitan UniversityUnited Kingdom 59.722.2%12.3×16 +40.5%
6Chinese University of Hong KongChina 59.427.8%1.9×11 +104.1%
7University of TorontoCanada 57.112.4%2.0×31 +20.6%
8Swinburne University of TechnologyAustralia 56.714.1%12.2×27 +121.0%
9University of Southern CaliforniaUnited States 56.016.9%3.4×22 +51.1%
10Utrecht UniversityNetherlands 55.616.8%4.0×22 +27.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Digital Games and Media, country by country

Is Digital Games and Media research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 20% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Digital Games and Media.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Digital Games and Media as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.044% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Digital Games and Media0.038% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Digital Games and Media over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Digital Games and Media10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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