Twitch Synchrony: The Emissions Impact of Streaming

This article takes as its object of study the phenomenon of the major spikes in video game streaming activity that surround the release of new games. Specifically, the focus is on the very similar sections of games that are repeatedly streamed in the first few weeks after a game’s release. The article first takes a media studies approach to show how the pressures of 24/7 content production push streamers to produce these kinds of streams. This is followed by a discussion of the author’s art project, Dragon’s Dogma 144 , focused on the release of the 2024 game Dragon’s Dogma 2 and the subsequent streaming surrounding that game. The article concludes with an energy consumption and emissions analysis of duplicated gameplay and its study through the lens of Dragon’s Dogma 144 . The conclusion looks toward media futures where such stream production may no longer be tenable.