There recently was an article on Eurogamer about Digital gaming and the climate
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-10-13-gaming-downloads-climate-crisis
On page 2 they stated that a 128 GB physical game (one BDXL) has the same carbon footprint as downloading that 128 GB game.
(Basically digital downloads always have a smaller carbon footprint unless you re-install/re-download a game numerous times)

So I was wondering how many of those 128GB physical games I download each month. My provider neatly keeps track of my data consumption and it's and average of 1,228 GB monthly, or the equivalent of the carbon footprint of 10 physical games per month.

How much do you download/stream on a monthly basis?

Btw digital gets more efficient all the time while I assume the carbon footprint of discs might go up as physical becomes less used, thus losing the savings of mass production/distribution. The more one or the other is used, the more efficient it gets. (The study in the article is from 2019 so that 128GB figure is likely higher already, of course games keep getting bigger as well)

Anyone download/stream more than 4tb a month? Not even 10 years ago I was still on a 70GB monthly limit!

I download/stream something like 1 TB per month total with Verizon Fios 300 mbps down/up. The bulk of this is 4k streaming apps and YouTube TV/Netflix/Hulu. My partner has T-Mobile 5G Home Internet (150 mbps down/ 20 mbps up) and uses about 900 GB per month, also mostly 4k streaming on YouTube TV/Netflix/Hulu.

Probably only 10 - 30% of our data usage is on games 100 - 300 GB per month.

I buy most of my PS5/PS4 games physically. I mostly only use my Xbox Series X for GamePass, only play 360 games for it physically. Switch games I buy physically. PC games I buy digitally of course.

I would say my average game is much smaller than the 128 GB statistic though. Often I'll buy a single-player game and then download the repack if it is too large since I like to conserve storage space, and since my PC is my main platform it means the average game I download is something like 40-50 GB.

Hard to say, I would need to call my provider, but I can get a rough estimate with my phone. It says that I have used 128 GB this month so far, 75 alone for Crunchyroll, so maybe by the end it should be between 200 and 250. With how much I use my laptop (next to nothing) and Switch (barely any online usage), and taking into account my mother's phone, I should be between 300 and 350 per month, can't imagine anything higher than that.

Somewhere between 1500-2000GB depending on the month. When there's no games/shows to stream/download, it's usually around 1500GB but during holiday season, it's usually around 1900-2000GB. Lowest I have seen is 1000GB but that's usually if we plan a trip for 2 weeks.

The percentage for games is quite low for my household. It was propped up a bit while I was playing FS2020 daily (since it streams data all the time, in the US up to 150GB a month where the most detailed data is) yet I mostly play physical games and small digital download games. FS2020 is by far the largest game I've downloaded. (No physical edition and also no point to a physical edition)

Most is video streaming from me, my wife, two kids. Luckily everyone is still happy with 1080p streaming as we're already over 1.2 TB a month. If all that streaming was done in 4K we would probably be looking at 3 TB monthly.

I got my oldest into the Lotr extended edition, 11 hours of physical disk viewing, save the planet lol. Much better than let's play you tube all the time!

No idea my ISP doesn't log as it is unlimited.

I do use netflix, mlbtv and instead of TV i stream all the local channels lol

I have unlimited data through my ISP. Right now, I primarily game on Switch, and that means I mostly buy physical and there isn't near as much downloading as there would be on a PS4/5. My data usage comes primarily through Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max.

It's all unlimited here in Finland so I don't really know. My ISP doesn't seem to track it in a manner that's available to me, so that doesn't help either. For what it's worth, I've used about 23 GB since Oct 3 on my phone, but that's probably not where most of my data consumption comes from.

Hmm, I never realized my isp was 'unique' in giving details about data consumption. The lack of transparency kinda surprises me. Of course they also have limited data offers so they must track it and make it available for viewing just like on the phone plans.

It seems kinda pointless to raise concerns about data consumption (Eurogamer) when most people don't even have the tools to see their data consumption. Yet so far it 'evens out'. Another point in the study was that electricity consumption by data centers remains pretty much flat. So far the efficiency gains of better infrastructure cancel out the ever growing increase in usage. Not great news for planet, one step forward one step back, but prices can stay the same as long as the two cancel each other out. And it's actually 2 steps forward, 1 step back since energy production is slowly getting greener. (Although the giant pile of E-waste from replaced hardware shouldn't be ignored)

Global data is estimated to double about every 3 to 4 years.

Not much, personally. The whole house of people? Something like 550GB last month. Not much either.

On a side note though, I actually read that physical media is better for the environment than digital.

Go figure lol