Gaming industry carbon emissions is equal to 85 million refrigerators

Since Microsoft's new pledge to become carbon negative by 2030, a study has surfaced online regarding how much the gaming industry as a whole impacts the environment carbon wise.

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory back in 2019 conducted a study that found that in the United States, the annual carbon emissions from the gaming industry were equal to that of 85 million running refrigerators. Another metric that is equal to that of the gaming industry's carbon footprint is 5 million cars.

Evan Mills, the study's lead author and a research affiliate at the University of California, Berkeley said, "Over time, as the technology marches forward, [gaming systems] become more energy-intensive." Grist.org also explains that even if gaming related devices become more energy-efficient, the devices' overall power consumption can still be increased as video games become more technically demanding. If you are interested in reading more about this, check out this link here.

Hopefully as time goes on other companies like Nintendo and Sony follow in Microsoft's footsteps at aiming to reduce their carbon footprint. I can only see companies efforts getting better and better, which will then result in the overall gaming industries carbon footprint diminishing.