Understanding toxic behaviors in the esports environment: an integrative review and future research directions

This integrative literature review (IRL) aims to thoroughly analyze existing eesearch, critically assessing manifestations of toxicity in the esports environment (i.e., griefing, trash talking, racism, and others). Following the five-step integrative review process and employing the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methods (TCCM) framework, a systematic search across academic databases identified 46 relevant documents. The review maps the theoretical, contextual, and methodological foundations of existing research on esports toxicity. The findings reveal that research on toxic behaviors in esports remains conceptually fragmented and methodologically emergent. Qualitative approaches dominate the field, particularly interviews and ethnographic studies, while quantitative and mixed-method designs remain comparatively limited. A total of 39 theoretical lenses were identified across the dataset, but one-third of the studies lacked explicit theoretical grounding, highlighting the absence of a unified framework to conceptualize toxic behaviors in esports. A strong focus on a limited set of commonly observed behaviors (e.g., flaming, trolling, sexism) was observed, while interactions between behaviors and broader governance dynamics remain underexplored. This critical review offers theoretical insights, highlighting the online disinhibition effect and practice theory to conceptualize toxic behaviors and their toxicity spectrum. It also introduces the HESS framework (i.e., human disposition, environmental dynamics, social exchanges, structural governance) as a comprehensive model to guide future research. Practical implications include the importance of targeted governance mechanisms, community-led interventions, and platform-level moderation strategies to mitigate toxicity and support healthier esports ecosystems.