Research status and evolutionary trends of digital sports: a perspective of co-word analysis

TL;DR

This paper maps the development of digital sports research from 2005 to 2025, identifying key themes and trends using co-word analysis.

Contribution

The study provides the first systematic mapping of the knowledge structure and evolutionary trends in digital sports research.

Findings

Four main research clusters were identified: digital innovation in sports media, digital devices in training, digital tech in physical education, and digital transformation's impact on sports health.

Terms like 'exercise,' 'gamification,' and 'physical activity' were highly interconnected, while 'kinesiology' and 'biomechanics' remained peripheral.

The research highlights a disconnect between traditional sports science and digital research, emphasizing themes like platformization and datafication.

Abstract

Despite the extensive penetration of digital technologies into the field of sports, a comprehensive review of the knowledge structure and developmental trends in this domain remains lacking. This study aims to employ co-word analysis to systematically map, for the first time, the knowledge landscape of international digital sports research from 2005 to 2025, identifying its core themes and evolutionary trends.

Drawing on a sample of 1,318 core English-language papers from the Web of Science database, this study utilized BICOMB 2.0, SPSS 26.0, and UCINET 6.0 to conduct high-frequency word analysis, social network analysis, and cluster analysis.

A total of 39 high-frequency keywords were extracted, and four main research clusters were identified: Digital Innovation Promoting the Development of Sports Media; Implementation of Digital Devices in Sports Training; Integration of Digital Technology in Physical Education; Impact of Digital Transformation on Sports Health. The study found that “exercise,” “gamification,” and “physical activity” were the most closely interconnected terms, while keywords such as “kinesiology” and “biomechanics” remained at the periphery of the research network.

This study reveals, for the first time, the four major clusters within digital sports research and their underlying socio-technical logics—platformization, the datafication of the body, technological mediation, and the health paradox. It also highlights the disconnect between traditional sports science and digital research. This macro-level framework provides a foundation for subsequent theoretical integration and interdisciplinary dialogue.

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