This study aims to determine whether the effect of interactivity on participation in virtual sports has risen because of the COVID-19 pandemic and if there is a difference in decision-making. The significance of social factors may be highlighted even more as a rationale for using virtual reality (VR) sports apps throughout the prolonged COVID-19 epidemic. A model was built based on the literature to describe the intention to participate in VR sports, and eight associated hypotheses were established. A sample of 301 submissions from a user poll on Korea's cycling information sharing website was used for our analysis. SPSS 23.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) and AMOS 18.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) were used to validate Hypotheses 1-8 using a multigroup structural equation model (SEM) analysis and multigroup analysis. Although some hypotheses were not validated, the impact of perceived interaction presented as an extra variable altered based on the group participating before and after the COVID-19 epidemic, and the study's goal was achieved. Given that information technology has evolved by overcoming physical space and socio-cultural constraints to create a society that connects people, the importance of online interaction, such as networking and competition between users, will be emphasized in the VR sports field in the future.
Keywords: COVID-19; extended theory of planned behavior; perceived interactivity; virtual reality sports game.