Tetris, Candy Crush, the universe of Mario and Sonic, GTA or even the very popular Call of Duty, video games have experienced strong development over the last three decades, introducing themselves into homes and into everyone's hands. Gone are the arcade terminals of Donkey Kong and Space Invaders, video games have embraced technological advances and benefited from the miniaturization of components. In 2025, the world now has 3.32 billion active, casual and passionate gamers, across all media.
The support match
The game console market is resisting mobile gaming, and has even experienced an increase of 10% in 2023. This growth is not without consequences: according to the University of Cambridge, the manufacturing and transport of the 117 million PS4s sold worldwide emitted 8.9 million tCO2e between 2013 and 2019. Emissions linked to the PS5 are not communicated, Sony favoring highlighting avoided emissions linked to drop in the energy consumption of different generations of consoles. For its part, Microsoft estimates that a latest generation console emits 72 kgCO2e/year, from its manufacturing to its transport, including use. Thus, with 90 million latest generation consoles, namely PS5 + Xbox Series X/S sold until June 2024, cumulatively, their emissions would be estimated at 6.48 tCO2e/year.
PC gaming remains a pillar of the sector. Although it is difficult to distinguish the overall use of a computer from the time actually devoted to gaming, it is estimated that a PC is used on average 2 hours 25 minutes per day, which corresponds to 84 kgCO2e/year. Taking into account manufacturing, the total footprint of a PC reaches 149 kgCO2e/year. Of the approximately 1.86 billion PC gamers, this represents 277.14 million tCO2e/year.
Finally, mobile gaming has established itself as one of the most easily accessible formats, driven by the success of applications like Candy Crush, and its 273 million active players in 2025, or Angry Birds, and its 5 billion downloads. It is estimated that each smartphone gamer spends 1.62 hours per day. A single player then emits 20 kgCO2e/year, manufacturing and electricity consumption included. With its 2.9 billion daily active players, the mobile player base reaches 58 million CO2e/year, the annual emissions of Greece.
The rise of portable consoles
After the transition from the arcade to the home, video games experienced a new revolution: Nintendo, the pioneer in the field and its GameBoy, or even handheld consoles like Tetris, brought the console out of the living room and outside, with its limitations. The following generations were more efficient, and more particularly the Nintendo DS and the PSP which truly revolutionized usage. The Switch has established itself among the best-selling consoles in the world: the Switch 2 alone has sold 5.82 million copies. It has particularly popularized triple-A license games like Legend of Zelda, Skyrim and many others. Portable consoles like the Switch are more energy efficient: a Switch emits 13.8kg CO2e/year for gaming sessions estimated at less than an hour per day.
Physical or dematerialized support
In physical media or in dematerialized version? In 2023, for flagship games like EA Sports FC 24 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, around 30% of sales were still physical copies. According to Greenly, manufacturing one million records, including packaging, is estimated at 312 tCO2e, not including transport-related emissions. Conversely, downloading 1 million copies of a 70 GB game emits 3 tCO2e, excluding regular updates, which are identical for both formats.
For downloading online games via different platforms, the data requirement is relatively moderate such as Fortnite (100 MB/h), World of Warcraft (250 MB/h) and League of Legends (50 MB/h). Thus, playing 1,000 hours of Fortnite would consume 97.7 GB, or an emission of 3.91 tCO2e. If 1 million players did the same, the footprint would rise to 3.91 million tCO2e.
The Youtube revolution: streaming games
If PewDiePie was among the first, other gamer Youtubers took the plunge. This dual use, playing and watching, quickly established itself with creators bringing together millions of subscribers like Ninja (24 million subscribers) and Squeezie (17 million subscribers) in France. Greenly estimates that one hour of YouTube streaming generates 3.2 kgCO2e. So, if each player watched at least 30 minutes of stream per day, this would represent 584 kgCO2e/year.
Reducing the carbon footprint of gaming
The video game industry has several levers to reduce its impact, beyond the messages it transmits through some of its games such as the famous Final Fantasy VII. To date, life cycle analyzes make it possible to better measure and reduce emissions linked to production and transport: for example, a PS4 alone already generated 89 kgCO2e in transport alone. At the same time, software optimization during the development of a game constitutes another lever: studios and publishers can offer energy-efficient settings, as shown by Epic, which considers that adjustments only to the game menus Fortnite represent a saving of 73 GWh/year, or 42 tCO2e to the global energy mix (6 tCO2e with the French mix compared to 31 tCO2e for the American one).
Players can also help reduce their footprint by favoring digital copies to reduce electronic waste, and by avoiding the purchase of superfluous accessories linked to the gaming ecosystem: backlit keyboard, gaming chair, and many others.
For Alexis Normand, CEO and co-founder of Greenly: “ Far from its beginnings as a niche hobby in the 1980s, the expansion of gaming platforms into increasingly portable formats is one of the great successes of the latest generation, showcasing creativity and human cooperation in multiplayer environments. We believe the same commitment can be put to the service of the environment, and call on the gaming community to keep the real world in mind, even when streaming. »
Link to Greenly’s study: The Environmental Impact of Video Games & How to Decarbonize the Industry
With an unwavering passion for local news, Christopher leads our editorial team with integrity and dedication. With over 20 years’ experience, he is the backbone of Wouldsayso, ensuring that we stay true to our mission to inform.
