Does gaming really burn calories? What the science says

Anyone who’s crawled out of a tense ranked match or double-overtime game knows an all-too-familiar feeling. Your palms are sweaty, your heart is pounding, and you leave the match feeling as though you have been put through the wringer.

The only problem is that, apart from moving a mouse and tapping a keyboard, your body has barely moved. Even so, the mental strain alone is enough to leave even the best players feeling drained – but how hard is the body actually working?

A systematic review by Kotas and colleagues sought to answer that question by examining the available research on energy expenditure during esports.

Although the researchers identified 176 records, only five studies met the inclusion criteria. Overall, the studies found that esports games can raise energy expenditure above resting levels, albeit only slightly. More surprisingly, players’ heart rates can also climb sharply even while their metabolism remains close to idle.

Across the five studies, energy expenditure during esports generally ranged from approximately 1.3 to 2.5 calories per minute. That is equivalent to about 78–150 calories per hour, or roughly the amount of energy contained in one or two boiled eggs.

Importantly, these figures represent total energy expenditure, not the number of calories burned beyond what the body would normally use at rest. Even while sitting still, the body needs energy to breathe, circulate blood, power the brain, and keep every organ functioning.

The important question is, then, how many more calories a player burns while competing than they would have burned at rest.

A study by Nicholson examined 13 male esports players ranked within the top 10% of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, VALORANT, League of Legends, Rocket League, and Overwatch. Median energy expenditure increased from 1.28 calories per minute at rest to 1.45 during solo-queue ranked gameplay.

Across participants, the researchers calculated a statistically significant 17% increase. However, the difference between the reported group medians was only 0.17 calories per minute. If those rates remained constant across a hypothetical three-hour gaming session, roughly 261 calories would be burned while gaming compared with around 230 calories at rest.

In other words, gaming itself would add only 31 calories (about 10 extra calories per hour). We can’t dismiss it as nothing, but it is far too little to turn a ranked grind into a workout. The study also pooled players from different esports genres, so it cannot tell us whether a League of Legends match burns more energy than a VALORANT or Counter-Strike game.

The table below compares the gameplay and resting values reported by four of the studies included in the systematic review.

Ketelhut and Nigg tested both League of Legends and FIFA. The single-player case report by Haupt and colleagues is discussed separately below because it compared gaming with cycling at a similar heart rate.

Note: The hourly figures are mathematical conversions from study averages, not personal calorie estimates. Some values were converted from the original reporting formats, and the studies used different samples and methods.

It’s important to mention that these values are not a universal gaming calorie calculator. The studies involved different players, games, match lengths, and equipment, while sample sizes ranged from a single-person case report to groups of 30 participants. Each study was also conducted in a controlled laboratory setting.

That helps explain why the results range from virtually no change to an increase of around 40% above resting energy expenditure. Skill level, competitive pressure, match intensity, and in-game activity may all play a role.

According to Kocak, higher actions per minute were also associated with greater measured metabolic demand. This suggests that someone producing more in-game actions (or perhaps those playing faster, high-APM titles) may expend slightly more energy than those competing at a slower pace.

However, Kocak was the only study to test that relationship, and it involved amateur male gamers playing MOBA-style games, which limits the generalizability of the findings.

The answer appears to lie less in physical work and more in how the body reacts to pressure.

During an esports match, the brain is doing many things. This includes tracking opponents, processing visual information, strategizing, and making rapid decisions in response to the ever-changing conditions of your match. Competition can also activate the sympathetic nervous system (the body’s automatic “fight or flight” response), raising heart rate even while the player remains seated.

The clearest example came from a case report by Haupt and colleagues involving an amateur player whose heart rate rose from approximately 85 bpm at rest to 137 bpm within the first 10 minutes of gameplay.

A heart rate of 137 bpm may look like moderate-to-vigorous exercise on a smartwatch, but the player’s oxygen use barely changed. When he cycled at an intensity that produced a similar heart rate, his energy expenditure was 3.55 calories per minute, roughly 2.6 times as high as the 1.38 calories spent while gaming.

Although the heart-rate readings were similar, the physical workload was completely different. During cycling, large muscle groups required far more oxygen and fuel than they did during gaming. The researchers explained that the increase in heart rate was primarily driven by mental and emotional pressure rather than physical movement.

This helps explain why fitness watches can struggle to accurately estimate calories used during gaming. Many devices use heart rate in their calculations and may interpret a stress-driven spike as evidence of physical exertion that is not actually occurring.

In other words, your heart can be in “clutch mode” while the rest of your body remains in “chair mode.”

The most rigorous studies use a technique known as “indirect calorimetry.” The name sounds complicated, but the idea is simple: esports players wear a mask connected to specialized equipment that measures how much oxygen they inhale and how much carbon dioxide they exhale.

Because the body uses oxygen to release energy from food, researchers can analyze these gases to estimate how many calories are expended during different activities. Indirect calorimetry is regarded as the “gold standard” for measuring energy expenditure and is significantly more reliable than heart rate alone, which can rise due to exercise, caffeine, heat, anxiety, excitement, or the pressure of defending match point.

Like most things, the setup is not perfect.

Playing games while connected to breathing equipment is very different from playing under normal conditions or competing on stage. Esports tournaments may also restrict the devices researchers can use during competitions. That is one reason the evidence relies on small samples and controlled sessions rather than major professional events.

The small calorie bump recorded during some matches cannot offset long periods of seated gaming (i.e., sedentary behavior). The important issue is whether players remain active off-screen.

A small study by DiFrancisco-Donoghue and colleagues found that male collegiate esports players averaged approximately 6,040 steps per day, less than half the 12,844 steps recorded by a control group of students who did not participate in esports.

The participants in the esports group also had a higher average body fat percentage, less lean mass, and lower bone mineral content, despite having a similar average BMI (body mass index). The study cannot prove that esports necessarily caused those differences, but it demonstrates why body weight and in-game calorie estimates do not tell the full story.

Physical training may also improve performance.

In a randomized controlled trial conducted by Tang and colleagues involving 83 FPS gamers, a six-week high-intensity interval training (HIIT) program improved flicking, tracking, decision-making, reaction time, and shooting accuracy. Aerobic fitness and sleep quality also improved, although the program did not significantly change mental toughness or self-regulation.

These findings do not mean every player needs an extreme HIIT routine. However, they do suggest that exercise has a stronger claim as an esports performance tool than the idea that playing itself provides meaningful physical training.

Gaming burns calories because the body is always using energy. Competitive play may add anything from virtually nothing to a few dozen calories per hour, depending on the player, game, intensity, and measurement method. Still, esports remains much closer to sedentary behavior or light activity than conventional exercise.

The more interesting finding is the apparent disconnect between the heart and the rest of the body. A tense match might send the heart rate soaring without producing a comparable rise in oxygen use or calorie expenditure.

Now, that’s not to say the exhaustion you might feel after an intense session isn’t real – it definitely is. However, it is more likely to reflect concentration, emotional pressure, and stress than a major physical workload. The game may put your mind and heart through a clutch situation, but it does not turn three hours in the chair into three hours of training.

Editorial note: This article interprets peer-reviewed research for a general esports audience. Every effort has been made to represent the studies accurately, but the findings should be read within the limitations of the original research, including small samples, differing methods, and limited evidence.