Competitive video games have been on a tear since the turn of the century. With a market value total of $2.8 billion in 2024, the esports industry is expected to grow to an estimated $16.7 billion by 2033. However, with that immense growth comes an increasingly intense concern for its potentially harmful effects on the environment, making it necessary to explore the ways in which the industry is — and should be — doing its part to protect the environment.

The environmental impact of esports would not have been a concern just a decade ago. The industry has grown at a rapid rate, and while recreational video games have been popular since the ’80s and ’90s, gaming platforms such as Xbox, PlayStation and Steam for computers came out in the early 2000s and brought a new competitive culture to the gaming sphere.

Along with the development of competitive communities, globally increased access to high-speed internet and ease of access to many gaming platforms has led to a spike in popularity across esports as a whole.

Many games now follow a free-to-play model — popularized by games such as League of Legends, released in 2009 and Fortnite, released in 2017 — with the goal of increasing popularity and player count. Due to their accessibility, mobile phone games have also helped boost the esports industry by allowing people to participate on their hand-held devices. In fact, out of the top five esports with the highest all-time peak viewership at an event, three of them are mobile games: Free Fire, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile. On top of that, all of the games in the top 10 of peak viewership are free to play.

But with this rise in popularity comes the question of long-term environmental sustainability — one that has plagued the greater sports world for decades. So how bad is it really?

Physical production and shipping of video games contribute to a significant portion of the industry’s carbon footprint, but more unpredictably — and likely more detrimental — is the actual digital experience that is played online that requires data and server usage. These online games all make up a portion of the “internet pollution,” which made up at least 3.7% of all global carbon emissions according to a 2019 report.

It is hard to gauge just how much gaming, and specifically esports, contributes to the internet pollution percentage, but there are other tangible ways that esports can be observed to be contributing to the problem.

In the overall gaming sphere, the effects have been apparent as Sony’s PlayStation 4 has been responsible for almost 10 million tons of carbon emissions since its 2015 release. The esports industry is estimated to produce an egregious 350 million tons of carbon dioxide yearly, and there are specific areas of the industry to blame.

The introduction of the Esports World Cup — funded by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund — took over as the largest esports event in 2024 with a record-setting prize pool of over $60 million. The event’s carbon footprint already started off on a bad note, requiring teams to travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on different dates between the beginning of July and the end of August. The extensive travel contributes to the aviation carbon footprint that makes up an estimated 2.5% of global carbon emissions, and the transportation sector as a whole making up 21.11% of global emissions.

Along with that, the Esports World Cup’s partnership with fossil fuel company Saudi Aramco is a front-and-center display of the esports industry’s lack of care for harmful business partnerships. And while the Esports World Cup Foundation calls Aramco “one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies,” it fails to mention that its “strategic” partner is one of the largest state-owned petroleum producers that also contributed to a whopping 4.38% of all global carbon emissions in 2023.

However, while these dangerous sponsors and business practices are present in esports, there are hidden gems throughout the industry.

One notable example is the organization FlyQuest, which is one of the industry’s leaders in environmental advocacy and sustainable practices. The organization has initiatives such as TreeQuest, which includes planting trees for player milestones in game and has helped plant over 10,000 trees while also bringing attention to the issue of sustainability after being featured on ESPN’s website in 2020.

FlyQuest has also taken steps to create sustainably manufactured merchandise and jerseys from recycled materials instead of using non-biodegradable alternatives.

There are also industry-wide trends that can help improve sustainability. While the industry has been trending away from online events that don’t require travel for performance reasons, other sustainable alternatives have popped up; notably, Riot Games’ implementation of localized venues for matches across its League Championship Series, or LCS, and Valorant Champions Tour, or VCT, leagues.

A central venue such as the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles provides a spot for all North American division LCS and Americas division VCT teams to play their season matches instead of traveling long distances for frequent events. This allows leagues including VCT to have just three major traveling events throughout the whole season, cutting down on the detrimental costs associated with frequent travel in traditional sports.

These methods from Riot Games and FlyQuest are examples of a great start, but industry leaders will need to focus more heavily on environmentally ethical business partnerships, along with tactics such as sustainable venues and eco-friendly gear to improve on the industry’s carbon footprint.

While there is a long way to go to right the ship, with companies providing environmental advocacy such as FlyQuest or committing to net-zero emissions such as Riot Games, the esports industry can help clean its stain on the environment that it has built since its rapid rise in the 21st century.