What pollutes the most, playing WoW or LoL, or listening to Spotify?

Above all, the study points out that the vast majority of these emissions come from high Internet traffic and the load on the CPU in the background. Apps like Battle.net or Steam put a load on the background processor which doesn’t do any efficient work. A rather interesting fact and which invites you to completely close these applications

Playing World of Warcraft or League of Legends is bad for the planet

Before we get alarmed, let’s put the data on the table and explain it a bit. According to the study, games they emit about 17.5 kilos of CO2 per week

, or approximately 910 kilos of CO2 per year. Even if the figure may seem alarming, if we compare it to the 15 kilos of CO2, on average, emitted by a vehicle that consumes 6 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers, it is not that much. More or less, playing video games per year emits the same as one vehicle per month that travels 50 kilometers every day.

It should be borne in mind that a large part of this consumption comes from data transmission over the Internet. It is estimated that transmit about 200 GB of data one week of moderate use. According to an MIT study, each GB of data is equivalent to between 28 grams and 63 grams of CO2.

It is also pointed out in the study that some of these emissions come from applications that run in the background. Software like Battle.net or Steam runs in the background. They estimated that between 37% and 45% of CPU load comes from these background apps.

Reducing our impact is quite simple, just close all those apps running in the background. It will also affect the electricity bill, which might go down a bit by removing apps that consume resources and do nothing.

But, it’s better to play than to use WhatsApp or Spotify

The same study gives other interesting data that are worth mentioning. Communication applications like WhatsApp and WeChat

they can generate 326 kg of CO2 In a week. But it’s that apps like Netflix, Spotify or Amazon Music they can generate 350 kg of CO2 weekly.

According to the study, communication or content streaming applications are much more polluting. The reason for this is the amount of data they transmit over the network. The WeChat app takes the cake with over 2,300 GB of data transmitted in a week, which is bullshit.

As we can see, the background applications that consume the most are content streaming and communication. Those of video games also consume, but much less. A simple solution is to close these applications when they will not be used. You can also plant a dozen trees, which are more or less necessary to absorb the ton of CO2 that is emitted when you play.