Research Article

Communication & Sport

2022, Vol. 10(2) 271–290
Let’s Watch Live Streaming: © The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/21674795211067819
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Influences Brand Attitude in
Esports Streamer Marketing

Qingru Xu1 , Hanyoung Kim2, and Andrew C. Billings3 

Abstract
This study explores if and how perceived Esports streamer credibility influences the
audience’s attitude toward the brand endorsed by the streamer. Results from a survey
conducted with US adults (N = 277) show the significant and positive relationship
between streamer credibility and brand attitude while identifying parasocial rela-
tionships and streamer loyalty as two factors mediating the impact of streamer
credibility on brand attitude. Structural equation modeling analysis is used to reveal
how perceived expertise and trustworthiness of an Esports streamer affect viewer
attitudes toward the promoted brands, with theoretical and practical implications
outlined.

Keywords
Esports stream, endorsement, credibility, parasocial relationships, marketing

1
Department of Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky,
Lexington, KY, USA
2
Integrated Strategic Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky,
Lexington, KY, USA
3
Ronald Reagan Chair of Broadcasting, Director, Alabama Program in Sports Communication, Journalism &
Creative Media, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

Corresponding Author:
Qingru Xu, Department of Communication, College of Communication and Information, University of
Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
Email: qingruxu0220@gmail.com
272 Communication & Sport 10(2)

A relatively new form of sport, Esports is commonly used to describe “the playing of
video games competitively” with games varying “in nature and clue shooting, strategy
and sporting games” (Olympic Council of Asia, 2021). Coevolving with the global rise
of Esport participation, Esports live streaming has emerged as one of the most
competitive, fastest-growing social media services in the world. As Statista (2021)
reports, the market size of Twitch—the world’s leading Esports streaming platform—
has grown from 43.3 million viewers in 2017 to 108.9 million viewers in 2020, with an
anticipated 187.9 million viewers by 2023.
In contrast to many social media influencers posting pre-made content, Esports
streamers—whether Esports professional athletes or amateurs—typically engage in
hours of real-time video chat with their followers while streaming their gameplay,
fostering a more engaging, intimate, and trustworthy relationship with their followers
(Game Marketing Genie, 2018). Thus, the marketing potential of Esports streaming has
been recognized by the industry. For instance, Ninja—the most-followed Twitch
gaming streamer with 16.6 million followers—has established sponsorships with
several of the world’s best-known brands, including Adidas, Red Bull, and Uber Eats
(Essentially Sports, 2021). Despite the growing popularity of streamer marketing,
however, the manner in which Esports streamers influence audience attitudes toward
endorsed brands remains understudied.
In endorsement research, perceived source credibility—measuring the level of
credibility of endorsers—has been identified as an important factor for explaining
persuasive effectiveness (e.g., Sokolova & Kefi, 2020). When compared to traditional
celebrities, for instance, the audience usually places more trust in their followed social
media influencers, making these influencers a credible and valuable portal for mar-
keting (e.g., Schouten et al., 2020). In exploring Esports streaming, prior studies
primarily focus on viewers’ gift-giving behaviors (e.g., Yu et al., 2018), viewers’
perceptions of Esports team sponsorships (e.g., Huettermann et al., 2020), and the
impact of live streaming on the gaming industry (e.g., Johnson & Woodcock, 2019),
leaving how the perceived credibility of Esports streamers affects audience attitudes
toward endorsed brands or products unanswered.
This study examines how the perceived credibility of Esports streamers affects
audience attitudes toward endorsed brands and the possible mechanisms undergirding
such relationships. By analyzing a national sample of 277 participants in the United
States through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), this study advances under-
standings of streamer marketing within the framework of source credibility theory
while also providing valuable practical implications to brands and advertisers when
integrating Esports streamer endorsements into marketing campaigns.
Xu et al. 273

Literature Review
Streamer Credibility and Brand Attitude
Broadly defined as a source’s positive characteristics, source credibility exacts a
considerable impact on the receiver’s acceptance of a message, including the receiver’s
attitude changes and subsequent decision-making behaviors (e.g., Ismagilova et al.,
2020; Ohanian, 1990; Todd & Melancon, 2018). In marketing, for instance, brand
credibility is considered one of the most important factors in explaining individuals’
consumption-related attitudes and decisions (Spry et al., 2011). Highly credible brands
are more likely to enjoy lower information gathering and processing costs as well as
lower perceived risk and uncertainty (Erdem & Swait, 2004). In other words, perceived
credibility of a brand—as a source—can diminish the cognitive effort consumers
employ to evaluate products or services, thereby enhancing convenience for making
consumption-related decisions (Martı́n-Consuegra et al., 2018).
Since the 1960s, the construct of source credibility has undergone many studies to
define and redefine its essential dimensions (e.g., Bowers & Phillips, 1967; Markham,
1968). The conceptualization of source credibility varies from one scale to another, yet
expertise and trustworthiness are widely recognized as two core dimensions (e.g.,
Schouten et al., 2020; Sternthal et al., 1978; Tabellion & Esch, 2019). Erdogan (1999)
explains that expertise refers to the capacity or competence assessed via the source’s
knowledge, experience, or skills in a certain area or subject, whereas trustworthiness
refers to the extent to which a source is perceived as honest, believable, or sincere.
In marketing and advertising research, perceived credibility of an endorser is
frequently uncovered to positively affect audiences’ brand attitude (e.g., Singh &
Banerjee, 2018; Tabellion & Esch, 2019; Wang et al., 2017). In the context of Esports
marketing, a similar relationship has been confirmed as well. For instance, Rogers et al.
(2020) examined how viewers perceive sponsors during Esports events, finding that
sponsor credibility positively impacts viewers’ attitudes toward the sponsor. In another
study, Lai et al. (2021) investigated how source credibility of live streamers affected the
audience’s consumption intention, finding that the perceived expertise of a streamer
claims an indirect positive impact on the audience’s purchase intention. Based on the
reviewed literature, an initial hypothesis regarding the potential influence of Esports
streamer credibility on viewer brand attitudes is advanced.

H1: The audience’s perceived Esports streamer credibility will have a positive effect
on their attitude toward the brand endorsed by the streamer.

Parasocial Relationships
Parasocial relationships refer to a long-term, enduring, and illusory relationship that the
audience forms with media personae, such as celebrities, sports teams, and television
stars (Dibble et al., 2016). As a one-sided, imaginary relationship, parasocial
274 Communication & Sport 10(2)

relationship was first proposed to understand the relationship between the audience and
media performers in traditional mass media (e.g., radio, television, and movies), in
which direct interaction was not possible (Horton & Wohl, 1956). In the social media
era, the presence of parasocial relationships between the audience and media personae
has been greatly enhanced due to the nature of social networks as two-way engagement
platforms (Labrecque, 2014; Rasmussen, 2018). For instance, social media allows
audiences/followers to interact with the persona by sending emails/messages or posting
a comment to the persona’s social media channels, facilitating the establishment of
parasocial relationships between the audience and the media performers (Chung &
Cho, 2017; Rasmussen, 2018; Thorson & Rodgers, 2006).
Compared to many influencers who primarily post images or pre-recorded videos,
Esports streamers usually spend hours broadcasting game play on a daily basis, during
which they constantly engage in real-time interactions with their followers, enabling the
audience to simulate authentic social interactions with the streamer (Game Marketing
Genie, 2018). Among the literature examining audience consumption of Esports live
streaming, parasocial relationship emerges as a key concept affecting the viewers’
emotions and behaviors (e.g., Lim et al., 2020). Specifically, Wulf et al. (2020) ex-
amined Twitch users’ enjoyment while watching video game live streaming, reporting
that parasocial relationship was a significant and positive predictor of their streaming
consumption.
The audience is more likely to foster parasocial relationships—one-sided social
relationships of intimacy—with a media performer who is perceived to be credible
(McCracken, 1989). Phua (2016) examined the effect of the audience’s parasocial
identification with spokespersons and source credibility in obesity public service
announcements on exercise and diet self-efficacy, finding that the perceived compe-
tence and trustworthiness of the spokesperson—the two core dimensions of source
credibility—positively affected parasocial identification with the spokesperson. Yuan
et al. (2016) explored the effects of parasocial relationships on customer equity in social
media marketing, finding that source credibility was a significant and positive predictor
of parasocial relationships. While the majority of the literature confirms positive re-
lationships between source credibility and parasocial interaction, inconsistent findings
emerged. For instance, Yuan and Lou (2020) conducted a study exploring the per-
suasive effectiveness of social media influencers, finding that—counterintuitively—the
perceived trustworthiness and expertise were not significantly related to parasocial
relationships.
Again, prior studies primarily focused on media personae who share pre-made
content, with little or no studies found investigating the effect of streamer credibility on
parasocial relationships in the field of Esports live streaming. Thus, a hypothesis
querying this relationship is proposed:

H2: The perceived credibility of an Esports streamer will have a positive effect on
the development of parasocial relationships.
Xu et al. 275

Streamer Loyalty
Defined as a form of psychological connection to a subject, loyalty can foster consistent
positive attitudes and behaviors (Heere & Dickson, 2008). As a highly-developed
attitude, the sense of loyalty is persistent, resistant to change, and can create positive
biases in cognitive processing, thereby influencing individuals’ subsequent decision
making (Funk & James, 2001). For instance, claiming a high level of loyalty toward a
sports team can lead to irrationality in fan sports-related consumption via cognitive
biases produced by their team loyalty (Heere & Dickson, 2008).
The construct of loyalty is primarily conceptualized from three main approaches:
behavioral, attitudinal, and composite (Bowen & Chen, 2001; Velázquez et al., 2011).
The behavioral perspective considers consistent, repetitious behavior as an indicator of
loyalty (e.g., frequent visits to a hotel), whereas the attitudinal perspective considers
emotional and psychological attachment as an indicator of loyalty (e.g., favorable
attitude toward a hotel; Bowen & Chen, 2001). However, a consumer might frequent a
hotel because of the budget limit rather than attitudinal loyalty, or vice versa. Thus, a
composite perspective—combining behavioral and attitudinal dimensions—could
increase the predictive power of loyalty measurements (Pritchard & Howard,
1997), which has been widely employed in a variety of disciplines, such as man-
agement (e.g., Bowen & Chen, 2001), business (e.g., Reichheld, 2003), and sports (e.g.,
Biscaia et al., 2013; Gladden & Funk, 2002). In the current study, therefore, streamer
loyalty is defined as a viewer’s emotional attachment to the streamer (attitudinal
loyalty) and repeated viewing of the streamer’s channel (behavioral loyalty).
The developed parasocial relationship with an Esports streamer can positively
impact the viewer’s perceived loyalty toward the streamer. For instance, Lim and his
colleagues (2020) found that parasocial relationships cast a positive impact on the
viewers’ repeated viewing, functioning as an indicator of behavioral loyalty. Conse-
quently, a viewer is more likely to continue watching a live-streaming channel when
building and maintaining strong parasocial relationships with the streamer. Meanwhile,
Hu et al. (2017) examined factors predicting viewers’ continuous watching intention,
finding that audience’s identification with the gaming streamer was positively asso-
ciated with their behavioral loyalty toward the streamer. Thus, a hypothesis querying
the relationship between parasocial relationships and streamer loyalty is proposed:

H3: Parasocial relationships will have a positive effect on streamer loyalty.

Loyalty also yields a significant influence on consumption-related attitudes and

behaviors. In celebrity marketing, Jyothi and Rajkumar (2005) examined the effec-
tiveness of celebrity advertisements, finding that consumer loyalty toward a celebrity
endorser was positively associated with purchase intention. In sports management,
Biscaia and his colleagues (2013) examined how sports team loyalty affects fan at-
titudes toward the sponsor, revealing that the higher level of emotional attachment that
fans claim with a sports team, the more likely they would develop a positive attitude
276 Communication & Sport 10(2)

toward the sponsor. In other words, customers’ loyalty toward an endorser can transfer
into a positive attitude toward the advertised brand. Thus, a fourth hypothesis predicts
that the more loyal a viewer is to the streamer, the more likely they would be to develop
a positive attitude toward the brand that the streamer promotes:

H4: Streamer loyalty will have a positive impact on brand attitude.

As reviewed above, perceived credibility toward an Esports streamer is expected to

claim a positive impact on the viewer’s perceived parasocial relationships with the
streamer (H2), which in turn, would exert a positive effect on the viewer’s affective and
behavioral loyalty toward the streamer (H3). Subsequently, streamer loyalty is an-
ticipated to have a positive impact on brand attitude (H4). In consideration of H2, H3,
and H4, it is expected that perceived parasocial relationships and streamer loyalty will
serve as serial mediators in explaining the hypothesized effect of perceived streamer
credibility on the audience’s attitude toward the brand that the streamer promotes (H1).
Hence, the following hypothesis is advanced:

H5: The effect of streamer credibility on brand attitude is mediated by parasocial

relationships and streamer loyalty.

Methods
Participants
A survey was conducted using a US national convenience sample of 277 participants
recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a crowdsourcing web service using
a labor force of self-registered employees (called “workers”) to complete jobs (called
“Human Intelligence Tasks” or “HITs”) in exchange for a wage (called a “reward”)
(Paolacci et al., 2010). Although the population of these “workers” in the United States
is more educated and younger than the general population, the MTurk is considered a
more reliable platform for collecting survey and experimental data than many other
Internet sources (Paolacci et al., 2010). In addition, scholars find that MTurk samples
are usually more diverse than typical student populations (Buhrmester et al., 2011).
Participants in this study were US residents who were at least 18 years old and
predominantly male (61%). They ranged in age from 19 to 69 years (M = 36.58, SD =
11.27), and also varied in racial/ethnic background (White or Caucasian [74.4%], Black
or African American [11.6%], American Indian or Alaska Native [2.2%], Asian or
Asian American [6.1%], Hispanic or Latino [5.4%], and Multiracial [.4%]), highest
level of education (middle school [.7%], high school [5.1%], community college
[7.6%], bachelor [68.2%], MA/MS [18.1%], and PhD and beyond [.4%]), and annual
income (below $20,000 [9.4%], $20,000-$29,999 [13.4%], $30,000-$39,999 [8.7%],
$40,000-$49,999 [14.8%], $50,000-$59,999 [17.7%], $60,000-$69,999 [9.4%],
$70,000-$79,999 [11.9%], $80,000-$89,999 [6.1%], and $90,000 or more [8.7%]). On
Xu et al. 277

average, participants spent 5.93 and 6.28 weekly hours on watching Esports streaming
and playing Esports, respectively.

Procedure
Once approval was received from the university’s institutional review board, the
questionnaire was launched on Amazon MTurk. During data collection, interested
participants visited a webpage linking them to the questionnaire. Interested participants
read and signed the consent form and were asked to answer three screening questions
about their age, whether he/she regularly watched Esports streaming, and whether he/
she had a favorite Esports streamer, in which we provided the definition of Esports live
streaming as “an activity where people broadcast or record themselves playing
competitive video games to a live audience online.” Unqualified participants were
denied access to further participation.
The qualified participants were directed to complete the remainder of the survey
questions. Questions asked about their personal experiences and habits relative to
Esports playing, and Esports streaming consumption, along with thoughts about their
favorite Esports streamers whom, and demographic information. The survey took
roughly 20 minutes to complete. Finally, participants were thanked.
To further check the quality of the collected questionnaires, we also asked the
participants to provide the name of his/her favorite Esports streamer, the primary
Esports that his/her favorite Esports streamer played, and the URL of his/her favorite
Esports streamers’ streaming channel. In total, 335 people participated in this study and
78 (22%) were filtered out for data analysis because they did not provide a valid Esports
streamer name (36), a valid Esports name (22), or a valid URL of the Esports streamer
(20). Qualified participants received a monetary incentive of one dollar for participating
in this study.

Measurement
Streamer credibility. Two dimensions of an Esports streamer’s credibility—expertise
and trustworthiness—were measured with two items for each dimension adapted from
Munnukka, Uusitalo, and Toivonen’s study conducted in 2016. Participants indicated
their agreement with statements measuring their perceived expertise and trustwor-
thiness of favorite Esports streamers. Each statement was measured on a 7-point Likert
scale varying from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Expertise was measured
with two questions: “I consider my favorite streamer sufficiently experienced to make
assertions about his/her area” and “I feel my favorite streamer knows a lot about their
areas.” Trustworthiness was measured with two questions: “I consider my favorite
streamer earnest” and “I feel my favorite streamer is honest.”

Parasocial relationships. The perceived parasocial relationships were measured by 13

items adopted from Yuan and Lou’s (2020) research. The scale included questions like
278 Communication & Sport 10(2)

Figure 1. Integrated conceptual model.

“My favorite streamer makes me comfortable, as if I am with a friend,” “If my favorite

streamer would appear live in another video, I would watch that video,” “I see my
favorite streamer as a natural, down-to-earth person,” “My favorite streamer is the kind
of person I would like to play or hang out with,” and “My favorite streamer would fit in
well with my group of friends.” Each statement was measured on a 7-point Likert scale
varying from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Streamer loyalty. Adapting from research conducted by Lim et al. (2020) and Heere and
Dickson (2008), five items were applied to measure individuals’ loyalty likelihood
toward his/her favorite Esports streamer. The scale included questions like “I feel more
attached to my favorite live-streaming channels than other channels,” “I will continue to
watch my favorite live-streaming channel,” and “It would be difficult for me to be a fan
of another live-streaming channel.” The items for streamer loyalty had a 7-point Likert
scale that ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Brand attitude. Brand attitude was assessed using semantic differential scales adapted
from Reinikainen et al. (2020) and Schouten et al. (2020). Participants rated the
statement of “If my favorite Esports streamer promotes a brand, to me that brand is” on
four 7-point semantic differential scales: dislikable–likable, negative–positive, un-
favorable–favorable, and bad–good.

Covariates. Informed by previous studies (e.g., Bernhold & Metzger, 2020; Lou &
Yuan, 2019), demographic factors—age, gender, race, income, education—that may
affect model testing were included as covariates. Additionally, duration of Esports
stream-watching hours and Esports playing hours were considered as covariates. The
proposed conceptual model efficiently summarizes the hypotheses (see Figure 1).
Xu et al. 279

Results
Preliminary Analysis
Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized for data analysis as it allows testing
multiple relationships among variables simultaneously and estimating measurement
errors, providing reliable and comprehensive understandings of given phenomena
(Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). AMOS 24 software was used to test the proposed model.
Streamer credibility—with the two dimensions of expertise and trustworthiness—
functioned as an independent variable with parasocial relationships and streamer
loyalty each mediating the relationship with the dependent variable: brand attitude.
Participants’ age, gender, ethnicity, highest education, annual income, time spent on
playing Esports per week, and time spent on watching Esports streaming per week were
controlled within the model.
Before testing the hypotheses, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) assessed the
construct validity of the measures. The following standards to determine the goodness
of model fit were employed, such as χ 2/df (less than 3) (Kline, 2011), CFI (greater than
.90) (Bentler, 1992), and RMSEA (less than .08) (Hu & Bentler, 1999). The results of
CFA demonstrated acceptable model fit: χ 2 (557) = 1238.90, χ 2/df = 2.22, CFI = .89;
TLI = .87, SRMR= .06, and RMSEA = .07 (.06, .07). Alteration to the model was made
by omitting one indicator from the parasocial relationships construct and one indicator
from the streamer loyalty construct. The dropped items of parasocial relationships (“I
would miss my favorite streamer when he/she was on vacation”) and streamer loyalty
(“I will continue to watch my favorite Esports streamer’s live streaming”) had factor
loadings lower than .60, the cutoff point (Kline, 2011). The revised model had good
model fit indices, χ 2 (486) = 1031.84, χ 2/df = 2.12, CFI = .91, TLI = .89, SRMR = .05,
RMSEA = .06 (.06, .07). All loadings on latent constructs were sizable and significant,
ranging from .66 to .83, indicating satisfactory convergent validity (Kline, 2011). The
applied measurement items, standardized loadings, means, standard errors, and reli-
ability of the latent variables are reported in Table 1.
The discriminant validity test was also conducted, with the average variance
extracted (AVE) values for all latent constructs greater than .50 and the square root of
the AVE for each construct bigger than its correlation to any other constructs, indicating
adequate discriminant validity among latent constructs. Correlations of variables in the
measurement model are reported in Table 2.

Hypothesis. Testing
Adopting the above-mentioned model fit indexes, the proposed model showed good
model fit with the sample: χ 2 (488) = 1041.50, χ 2/df = 2.13, CFI = .91, TLI = .88, SRMR
= .05, RMSEA = .06 (.06, .07). Figure 2 represents the structural model with stan-
dardized path coefficients.
280 Communication & Sport 10(2)

Table 1. Estimates of Measured Items.

Standard
Loadings M SD AVE CR

Streamer Credibility (Cronbach’s alpha = .84) 5.69 .93 .57 .84

I consider my favorite streamer sufficiently experienced to 0.77 5.68 1.14
make assertions about his/her area
I feel my favorite streamer knows a lot about their areas 0.71 5.76 1.09
I consider my favorite streamer earnest 0.80 5.64 1.11
I feel my favorite streamer is honest 0.73 5.68 1.16
Parasocial Relationships (Cronbach’s alpha = .92) 5.51 .92 .51 .92
My favorite streamer makes me feel comfortable, as if I am 0.78 5.46 1.37
with a friend
If my favorite streamer would appear live in another video, 0.68 5.60 1.14
I would watch that video
I see my favorite streamer as a natural, down-to-earth 0.66 5.57 1.22
person
If my favorite streamer starts another social media channel, 0.74 5.52 1.33
I will also follow
My favorite streamer seems to understand the kinds of 0.69 5.54 1.14
thing I want to know
If I see a story about my favorite streamer in other places, I 0.79 5.61 1.23
would read it
I would like to meet my favorite streamer in person 0.73 5.46 1.28
If something happens to my favorite live streamer, I will feel 0.66 5.45 1.26
sad
I would invite my favorite streamer to my party 0.66 5.42 1.37
My favorite streamer is the kind of person I would like to 0.76 5.51 1.25
play or hang out with
If my favorite streamer lived in my neighborhood we 0.68 5.52 1.18
would be friends
My favorite streamer would fit in well with my group of 0.68 5.51 1.25
friends
Streamer Loyalty (Cronbach’s alpha = .81) 5.31 1.06 .52 .81
I feel more attached to my favorite streaming channels than 0.74 5.49 1.30
other channels
It would be difficult for me to be a fan of another live- 0.69 5.01 1.56
streaming channel
I will increase the amount of time I spend watching my 0.74 5.21 1.31
favorite live-streaming channel
I consider myself to be a committed fan of my favorite live- 0.72 5.54 1.10
streaming channel
Brand Attitude (7-level semantic differential scales) (Cronbach’s 5.71 .99 .63 .87
alpha = .87)

(continued)
Xu et al. 281

Table 1. (continued)

Standard
Loadings M SD AVE CR

If my favorite Esports streamer promotes a brand, to me 0.77 5.79 1.22

that brand is [dislikable or likable]
If my favorite Esports streamer promotes a brand, to me 0.79 5.70 1.16
that brand is [negative or positive]
If my favorite Esports streamer promotes a brand, to me 0.79 5.78 1.16
that brand is [unfavorable or favorable]
If my favorite Esports streamer promotes a brand, to me 0.83 5.77 1.14
that brand is [bad or good]
Note. Composite Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) from measurement model are
reported.

Table 2. Correlation matrix of key variables.

M SD 1 2 3 4

1. Source credibility 5.69 .93 1.00

2. Parasocial relationships 5.51 .92 .75*** 1.00
3. Streamer loyalty 5.31 1.06 .46*** .62*** 1.00
4. Brand attitude 5.71 0.99 .28*** .48*** .46*** 1.00
Note. *** p < .001. ** p < .01.

Figure 2. The structural model predicting the role of parasocial relationships and streamer
loyalty in mediating the effect of source credibility on brand attitude. Values are standardized
coefficients. For graphical parsimony, control variables, error terms, and measurements are
excluded. *** p < .001, ** p < .01.
282 Communication & Sport 10(2)

Hypothesis 1. Proposes that streamer credibility has a positive effect on brand attitude
in the context of Esports streamer marketing. Results showed that streamer credibility
(β = .39, p < .01) had a significant and positive impact on brand attitude. Thus, H1 was
supported.

Hypothesis 2. Posits that Esports streamer credibility has a positive impact on par-
asocial relationships. Results showed that credibility (β = .87, p < .01) had a significant
and positive effect on parasocial relationships. Therefore, H2 was supported.

Hypothesis 3. proposes that parasocial relationships would be positively related to

streamer loyalty. The results showed that parasocial relationships (β = .75, p < .001) had
a significant positive impact on streamer loyalty, supporting H3.

Hypothesis 4. Predicts that streamer loyalty will positively influence brand attitude. In
support of H4, streamer loyalty (β = .65, p < .01) had a significant positive impact on
brand attitude.

Hypothesis 5. Posits that parasocial relationships and streamer loyalty will serve as
meditators explaining the effect of streamer credibility on brand attitude. To test this
serial mediation, bootstrapping procedures were employed using 5000 bootstrapped
samples with a biased-corrected confidence interval (CI) set to 95%. The results
showed that the indirect effect from credibility to brand attitude was significant (β = .42,
p < .01, CI [.16, .93]), whereas the direct effect was not significant (β = .035, p > .05.
CI [ .62, .35]). Thus, H5 was supported, suggesting the variables of parasocial re-
lationships and streamer loyalty fully mediated the relationship between streamer
credibility and brand attitude.

Discussion
This study established the effect of streamer credibility on brand attitude in the context
of Esports live streaming, further exploring the underlying mechanism using a serial
mediation model. By recruiting 277 American participants, the study confirmed the
significant and positive impact of streamer credibility on brand attitude in streamer
marketing, while identifying two mediators—parasocial relationships and streamer
loyalty—to explain the underlying mechanism. Structural equation modeling revealed
that the positive relationship between streamer credibility and brand attitude can be
fully explained by the mediational path through parasocial relationships and streamer
loyalty, successively. The study broke new ground as one of the first to explore
mechanisms regarding perceived streamer credibility exerting an impact on viewers’
brand attitude in Esports streamer marketing.
First, viewers’ perceived streamer credibility casts a positive impact on their
parasocial relationships with the Esports streamer. That is, the more skillful and
trustworthy the viewer perceives his/her favorite Esports streamer to be, the stronger
Xu et al. 283

parasocial relationships the viewer would develop. This finding provides an interesting
contrast to Yuan and Lou’s (2020) study, in which both expertise and trustworthiness—
the two core dimensions of source credibility—were not significantly related to in-
dividuals’ perceived parasocial relationships with social media influencers. The dif-
ferences uncovered between the two studies might attribute to the unique features of
Esports streamers compared to social media influencers in many other domains, such as
travel, fashion, and lifestyle.
Delving deeper into this relationship, learning from streamers about their gaming
strategies and skills not only emerges as an almost invariable reason for viewers to start
watching gaming streams (Hamilton et al., 2014), but also functions as a significant
motivation of gaming stream consumption overall (e.g., Hilvert-Bruce et al., 2018).
That is, the streamer’s expertise—which can be precisely measured by rankings and
scores in nearly all Esports—is highly valued by viewers. The followers of social media
influencers examined in Yuan and Lou’s (2020) research primarily specified in domains
like lifestyle, food, fashion, healthy living, and travel; in contrast, Esports streaming
viewers likely hold a more learning-driven purpose in watching live streaming, making
streamers’ credibility—expertise and trustworthiness—a more salient predictor of
parasocial relationships.
Second, it was observed that the viewer’s loyalty toward his/her favorite streamer
increases as his/her perceived parasocial relationships with the streamer increases. In
other words, the higher level of parasocial relationships the viewer forms with his/her
favorite streamer, the more likely he/she would develop an emotional attachment with
the streamer and also more frequently watch the streamer’s live streaming, aligning well
with prior findings that the perceived parasocial relationships could yield a positive
impact on loyalty (e.g., Lim et al., 2020). From a theoretical perspective, the sense of
being connected with an Esports streamer (i.e., parasocial relationships) can result in
viewers developing an affective attachment with and behavioral loyalty to the streamer,
as they would feel resistance to becoming a fan of another streamer and also tend to
repetitive consume this streamer’s live broadcasting.
In watching Esports live streaming, this study also found that streamer loyalty
toward the streamer positively influences brand attitude in streamer marketing. Spe-
cifically, the more loyal—both emotionally and behaviorally—the viewer is toward his/
her favorite streamer, the more positive attitude the viewer would develop with the
brands that the streamer promotes. Considering the highly positive correlation un-
covered from the two constructs (.65), the loyalty toward a streamer appears to be
effectively transferred into a positive brand attitude in Esports streamer marketing.
From a practical perspective, streamer loyalty should be an important indicator in
choosing fit Esports streamers for marketing purposes. For instance, although nano-
streamers (i.e., a streamer with a range of followers between 1 k and 10 k) only have a
small number of followers compared to macro (500 k to 1 M followers) and mega (1 M+
followers) streamers, their followers usually showcase the highest level of loyalty (Ady,
2021). With a small group of followers, nano-streamers can interact with most of his/
her followers directly, facilitating a high level of engagement and loyalty and, arguably,
284 Communication & Sport 10(2)

moving relationships from the parasocial to the social domain. Thus, given the high,
positive correlation between streamer loyalty and brand attitude, choosing nano-
streamers with a smaller number of highly loyal followers can be an effective mar-
keting strategy in promoting brands, especially considering that the cost of building a
business relationship with these nano-streamers is much lower compared to that with
mega- or macro-streamers.
Furthermore, the most important finding of the current research is that parasocial
relationships and streamer loyalty fully mediate the effect of streamer credibility on
brand attitude. The full mediation indicates that, in the context of Esports streamer
marketing, viewers’ perceived credibility toward the streamer is an important pre-
requisite for developing a positive brand attitude, and this effect is achieved through
parasocial relationships and streamer loyalty. As such, perceived expertise and
trustworthiness of the streamer can lead an audience to build a strong sense of par-
asocial relationships with the streamer; the parasocial relationships can then exert a
positive impact on the audience’s affective and behavioral loyalty toward the streamer.
Such streamer loyalty can be eventually transferred into a positive attitude toward the
brands that streamers promote. From a theoretical perspective, this finding contributes
to source credibility theory by providing insights into explaining the mechanism of how
the perceived credibility of a source affects brand attitude in the context of Esports
streamer marketing.

Limitations and Future Directions

Although these findings shed light on the mechanism of how streamer credibility
influences viewers’ brand attitude in Esports streamer marketing, conclusions should be
interpreted with caution. First, considering the sample applied in this study is a national
convenient sample of participants residing in the United States, the generalizability of
the findings in other countries remains to be examined. Considering that the ecosystem
of Esports streaming can significantly vary from a country to another, future studies
should further explore streamer marketing in other regions—such as East Asia, Europe,
and South America—and conduct comparative analyses across countries, which could
further expand understandings of Esports streamer marketing, an emerging field of
interest throughout the world. Second, the purpose of this study can be easily surmised
via the construction of the questionnaire, which may lead to response biases in this
study. Researchers are encouraged to seek more covert mechanisms for addressing this
relationship in future studies.
Third, the measurement of brand attitude had to be adapted from the work of
Schouten et al. (2020), who measured particular streamers and brands. It was a matter of
necessity to allow each respondent to insert their own streamer and brand into the
measures for the current study, as each participant followed different streamers and,
hence, asking about any one particular streamer would not have worked for a significant
portion of the population. Nevertheless, the potential for vagueness could have in-
creased error in the measure and should be explored via other means in the future.
Xu et al. 285

Fourth, the current study only included two core dimensions of source credibility—
expertise and trustworthiness—into examination, whereas some scholars also included
the dimensions of perceived similarity and attractiveness in measuring the concept of
source credibility in influencer marketing (e.g., Lou & Yuan, 2019). Although the
validity of including the dimensions of attractiveness and perceived similarity has not
reached a consensus across studies (e.g., Reinikainen et al., 2020; Schouten et al.,
2020), the roles of attractiveness and perceived similarity play in Esports streamer
marketing are worth exploration, which could also provide insights into the similarities
and differences between Esports streamer marketing and traditionally-defined influ-
encer marketing. Also, the current study measures perceived source credibility as one
single construct without examining how each facet affects the formation of parasocial
relationships, which can be further examined in subsequent studies.
Moreover, this study explored how the perceived Esports streamer credibility in-
fluences audience brand attitudes without specifying whether the endorsed brand is
game-related or not. In advertising and marketing, how endorser-brand congruency
affects persuasive effectiveness has been widely examined, with contradicting findings
uncovered (e.g., Breves et al., 2019; Paul & Bhakar, 2018). Considering that little or no
studies have been conducted to explore the impact of endorser-brand fit in streamer
marketing, future studies could investigate potential differences in persuasive effec-
tiveness when Esports streamers are promoting game-related brands/products and/or
non-game-related brands/products. Doing so would facilitate understanding in Esports
streamer marketing as well as provide marketing practitioners with valuable infor-
mation when building business partnerships with Esports streamers.

Conclusion
By testing a serial mediation model through SEM, this study identified two mediators—
parasocial relationships and streamer loyalty—in explaining the positive and signif-
icant relationship between streamer credibility and brand attitude in the context of
Esports streamer marketing. It contributes to source credibility theory by providing
explanations of how the perceived expertise and trustworthiness of an Esports streamer
exert a positive impact on consumers’ brand attitude in the context of endorsement.
From a practical perspective, findings suggest that streamer loyalty—serving as a
significant, direct variable in predicting the customers’ attitude toward the promoted
brands—should be an important factor to consider when selecting ideal Esports
streamers for marketing purposes.
With the Esports industry skyrocketing worldwide, integrating gaming streams into
marketing campaigns to promote brands, products, and services will be embraced and
applied by more than more companies. Despite such great potential and demand,
Esports streaming marketing remains vastly unexplored. Emerging as one of the first to
explore the mechanism of how streamer credibility influences brand attitude, this study
provides valuable information for marketing practitioners and scholars who will further
explore Esports streamer marketing.
286 Communication & Sport 10(2)

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

ORCID iD
Qingru Xu  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5788-6274
Andrew C. Billings  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4818-5799

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