A new study published in Computers in Human Behavior has found that experienced first-person shooter (FPS) players outperform non-gamers in aiming tasks due to more efficient eye movement patterns. Using eye-tracking technology, the researchers discovered that these gamers rely on quicker, more targeted visual strategies that likely support their rapid response and precise motor coordination. Their advantage appeared not in accuracy but in execution speed, especially when reacting under uncertain conditions.
First-person shooter games are a dominant force in competitive esports. In these games, players navigate virtual environments from the character’s point of view, aiming and shooting at targets that may appear suddenly and from any direction. Popular titles like Counter-Strike 2 and Call of Duty reward fast reflexes, precise targeting, and accurate hand-eye coordination. As professional esports continues to grow, there’s increasing interest in understanding the cognitive and perceptual skills that set expert players apart from casual gamers or non-players.
Previous studies have shown that FPS players tend to have stronger visual search abilities and better attentional control, but much of that research focused on general response times or broader visual skills. This new investigation went deeper by examining the fine-grained eye movement patterns that underlie aiming behavior. Specifically, the researchers wanted to know whether FPS players use different strategies to locate and target visual stimuli, especially under varying conditions of distance and timing. The study also explored how visual and motor responses work together, and whether these skills can be observed using a controlled version of an FPS task.
The research team recruited 63 participants—28 experienced FPS players and 35 individuals with no FPS experience. Experienced players had at least two years of regular gameplay and reported playing at least once per week. All participants were university students with normal or corrected vision. Using an eye-tracking device, the researchers recorded each person’s eye movements while they performed a simplified aiming task adapted from a popular Counter-Strike training map.
During each trial, participants first clicked a yellow target in the center of the screen. After a short delay—either 250 milliseconds or 500 milliseconds—a red target appeared at one of three distances (near, medium, or far) and at a randomly selected angle. Participants were instructed to hit the red target as quickly and accurately as possible using a computer mouse. The task was designed to mimic the “repeek” scenario common in FPS games, where an opponent briefly disappears behind cover and then reappears, requiring players to anticipate timing and respond with precision.
Each participant completed 72 randomized trials while their eye movements were tracked. The researchers analyzed both traditional performance metrics—like accuracy and reaction time—and detailed measures of eye behavior, including the number and duration of fixations and saccades (quick eye movements between points of focus).
The results revealed a consistent performance advantage for experienced FPS players, particularly in how quickly they completed each aiming task. Although there were no significant differences in accuracy between groups, the FPS players had significantly shorter execution times. This pattern held true across all target distances and both timing conditions, suggesting that their advantage was robust under varying levels of difficulty and temporal uncertainty.
What truly distinguished the experienced gamers was the efficiency of their eye movement patterns. They tended to complete aiming sequences with a single saccade and no fixation—a pattern the researchers called “0-fixation-1-saccade.” This was the most common strategy among experienced players and was observed in over 40% of their trials. In contrast, non-gamers more often used more complex patterns involving multiple fixations and saccades, indicating less efficient visual-motor coordination.
When a participant used a 1-fixation-2-saccades pattern, for example, it meant that their eyes initially overshot the target, then had to pause and make a corrective movement. These additional steps slowed down their responses. The 2-fixations-3-saccades pattern, even more common among non-FPS players, reflected an even less efficient strategy, with multiple corrections needed to land a hit. In essence, the more experienced a player was, the fewer corrections they needed—and the faster they could act.
These differences in visual behavior were also influenced by how far the target appeared from the center of vision. Targets placed farther from the middle of the screen were more difficult to hit quickly, likely because they fell outside the fovea—the central part of the retina responsible for sharp visual detail. Across all participants, greater target distances and longer target appearance delays led to slower execution times and more eye movements, consistent with the effects of visual difficulty and temporal unpredictability.
Interestingly, the study found that while participants initiated their eye movements slightly faster when targets appeared after a longer delay, this did not improve performance. In fact, the longer delay condition (500 milliseconds) was associated with lower accuracy and longer execution times. This suggests that increased temporal uncertainty may create pressure to act quickly but not always effectively, especially when players cannot predict exactly when a target will appear.
The researchers also explored how different spatial and temporal conditions interacted to shape performance. For example, near targets presented with short delays were hit more accurately and quickly than those at longer distances or with more unpredictable timing. This finding supports the idea that players perform best when both visual clarity and timing are favorable. In contrast, under challenging conditions—such as far targets with long delays—performance declined across all participants, though experienced FPS players still retained their execution speed advantage.
One of the most novel aspects of the study was its use of pattern-level eye movement analysis. Rather than relying only on averages, the researchers analyzed eye movement sequences from each individual trial. This approach provided a more nuanced picture of how visual and motor systems work together. For example, they showed that saccades—rather than fixations—appear to guide mouse movement in these tasks. In most cases, the final saccade before a shot corresponded directly to the path of the crosshair, suggesting that saccades serve as the key signal for motor planning in FPS-style aiming.
The study does have limitations. While the participants were categorized based on reported gaming experience, the sample did not include elite or professional esports players, who may exhibit even more refined visual-motor skills. The experimental task, although adapted from a real aiming map, did not include the full complexity of modern FPS games, such as distracting elements, varied environments, or moving targets. Future research could incorporate more realistic gaming scenarios and include mouse movement data to better capture the full dynamics of eye-hand coordination.
The study, “The aiming advantages in experienced first-person shooter gamers: Evidence from eye movement patterns,” was authored by Liu Yang, Wenmao Zhang, Peitao Li, Hongjie Tang, Shuying Chen, and Xinhong Jin.
