Toward Understanding Display Size for FPS Esports Aiming

TL;DR

This study investigates how different display sizes affect FPS aiming performance, revealing small but significant improvements with larger monitors, influenced by size, resolution, and viewing distance.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the impact of display size on FPS aiming, highlighting subtle performance differences across monitor sizes.

Findings

Larger monitors yield slightly better aiming performance.

Performance improvements are statistically significant.

Display size, resolution, and viewing distance influence outcomes.

Abstract

Gamers use a variety of different display sizes, though for PC gaming in particular, monitors in the 24 to 27 inch size range have become most popular. Particularly popular among many PC gamers, first person shooter (FPS) games represent a genre where hand-eye coordination is particularly central to the player's performance in game. In a carefully designed pair of experiments on FPS aiming, we compare player performance across a range of display sizes. First, we compare 12.5 inch, 17.3 inch and 24 inch monitors on a multi-target elimination task. Secondly, we highlight the differences between 24.5 inch and 27 inch displays with a small target experiment, specifically designed to amplify these small changes. We find a small, but statistically significant improvement from the larger monitor sizes, which is likely a combined effect between monitor size, resolution, and the player's natural viewing distance.