Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) recently released a financial report revealing that over 80% of its game sales are digital, highlighting a growing preference among players for digital games. A recent study by the French carbon accounting company Greenly shows that choosing digital games is not only more convenient but also more environmentally friendly, as the carbon emissions produced from manufacturing physical games are approximately 100 times greater than those of digital versions.
According to an analysis by Greenly, the production of one million game discs results in as much as 312 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. In stark contrast, the carbon footprint for downloading one million digital games (calculated at 70GB each) is only 3 tons. Stephanie Safdie, one of the researchers, pointed out that while the energy required for cloud servers does impact the environment, the pollution and waste issues stemming from the manufacturing, packaging, and transportation of physical games are far more severe. On the other hand, the emissions from digital games primarily arise from household electricity consumption during downloads and energy use at data centers, without adding to landfill burdens.
Greenly further investigates that the manufacturing of gaming consoles requires the extraction of rare earth metals and the production of plastics, both of which consume vast amounts of water and energy. Research shows that gaming consoles in the United States have an annual electricity consumption of 3.9 terawatt-hours (TWh), resulting in about 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. When considering the connected television screens, the annual carbon emissions from console gaming can reach 2.6 million tons. In contrast, the 290 million mobile gamers worldwide, averaging 97 minutes of gameplay per day, contribute an annual carbon emission of 58 billion tons.
Based on this data, Greenly recommends that if you’re looking for a more eco-friendly gaming platform, handheld consoles like the Nintendo Switch are the best choice, emitting only about 0.014 tons of carbon per year per unit. Furthermore, Greenly urges game console manufacturers to adopt a trade-in program similar to Apple’s, reusing recyclable components to cut down on the carbon emissions from creating entirely new consoles. Game development teams can also contribute by optimizing game designs to reduce energy consumption.
Greenly highlights that the Xbox console is considered one of the most environmentally friendly gaming systems out there. This is largely due to Microsoft’s initiative to use recycled materials in the production of the console and to update the energy-saving features. In 2022, Microsoft announced that at least 28% of the mechanical components of the Xbox Series S are made from post-consumer recycled plastics, and they’ve set the Energy Saver mode as the default option on the new consoles, which consumes 20 times less power than the standby mode. Additionally, Microsoft has committed to ensuring that by 2030, all packaging for Xbox products and accessories will be 100% recyclable in OECD countries.
