This study examines audience engagement with ‘Love Is All Around’ (LIAA), China’s highest-grossing liveaction interactive entertainment product of 2023, through the lens of uses and gratifications theory. Drawing on questionnaire data, we investigate how this emerging hybrid media form integrates cinematic and gaming modalities to create new patterns of user engagement and gratification. Our findings reveal that while LIAA users predominantly identify as viewers rather than gamers, they actively engage with both narrative and interactive elements. The analysis demonstrates how such convergent media products fulfill multiple gratification functions: beyond entertainment, they facilitate social connectivity and personal development. Users navigate fluidly between passive viewing and active participation, suggesting a transformation in traditional audience roles. The study contributes to theoretical understanding of contemporary digital media consumption while offering practical insights for industry development. We argue that successful convergent media products must strategically balance narrative immersion with interactive agency to maintain user engagement. These findings illuminate evolving patterns of media consumption in the digital age, where boundaries between traditional viewing and gaming continue to blur.
