Console

Carbon

Footprint

With 21 gaming companies pledging to reduce their carbon footprint by more than 30 million tonnes by 2030 through greener features and offset emissions, Console Carbon Footprint reveals why reducing plastic packaging is crucial to combatting climate change...

Global Plastic Waste

91% of the 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic that has ever been produced isn't recycled

 

If current trends continue, there will be 12 billion metric tonnes of plastic in landfills by 2050

 

Physical vs Digital

When looking at the materials used to produce physical games and the electricity used for digital downloads, it reveals that physical copies emit more than 23 times the CO2 of downloads.

Popular Game Emissions

Looking at the most popular game titles over the last year reveals FIFA 19 is responsible for 912,581kg of CO2, based on physical sales and digital downloads.

FIFA 19

No. of Physical Units Sold

1,889,401

No. of Digital Downloads

9,224,723

Total CO2 Emissions Footprint kg

912,581

Red Dead

Redemption 2

No. of Physical Units Sold

1,757,212

No. of Digital Downloads

8,579,329

Total CO2 Emissions Footprint kg

848,733

Call Of Duty:

Ops 4

No. of Physical Units Sold

1,172,855

No. of Digital Downloads

5,726,292

Total CO2 Emissions Footprint kg

566,489

Marvel's

Spider-Man

No. of Physical Units Sold

676,621

No. of Digital Downloads

3,303,503

Total CO2 Emissions Footprint kg

326,808

Mario Kart

8 Deluxe

No. of Physical Units Sold

458,675

No. of Digital Downloads

2,239,413

Total CO2 Emissions Footprint kg

221,540

Playing Time

Comparing the average completion time of popular games against their CO2 Emissions footprint reveals that Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the most environmentally damaging game to complete.

Plastic Waste

Measuring game sales against the packaging used reveals that 128,479kg of plastic could go to landfill if FIFA 19 players threw their old games away when buying FIFA 20.

Console Comparison

Based on the CO2 emissions resulting from power usage,the PS3 Original is the least eco-friendly console.

Nintendo consoles are the most environmentally friendly, with average emissions of 0.008kg p/h.

Xbox consoles are the worst for the environment, with average emissions of 0.031kg p/h.

Upcoming Releases

A substantial portion of consoles' energy use is determined by graphics processing.

 

Based on that alone, the PS5 could be the eco-friendliest PlayStation since the Classic.

Xbox

Series X

PS5

1.5x performance-per-watt compared to earlier

Graphic Processing

Units (GPUs)

Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) will be double that of the Xbox One X

Estimated CO2 Emissions per hour

Estimated CO2 Emissions per hour

0.022kg

0.07kg