GeoGuessr has withdrawn from the Esports World Cup following significant backlash from its community. The popular geography game, which boasts 85 million users, faced criticism after announcing participation in the event set to take place in Saudi Arabia this summer. GeoGuessr allows players to be dropped into random locations worldwide, challenging them to identify their surroundings. The game offers extensive customization options, including player selection, map choices, urban or rural settings, geographical restrictions, and the ability to move, pan, or zoom—or to play in NMPZ (No Move, Pan, or Zoom) mode. These features, along with a wide array of community-created custom maps, have made GeoGuessr a staple in the esports scene.
On May 22, Zemmip, representing creators responsible for many of GeoGuessr's most popular maps, initiated a "blackout" to protest the company's decision to host a World Championship wildcard tournament at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. The creators argued that by participating in the event, GeoGuessr was contributing to Saudi Arabia's sportswashing agenda, which aims to distract from the country's human rights abuses. These abuses, according to Zemmip, target groups such as women, the LGBTQ community, apostates, atheists, political dissenters, migrant workers under the Kafala system, and religious minorities, resulting in widespread discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and even public executions.
The blackout involved numerous creators and their maps, including a majority of the most popular competitively relevant world maps. The organizers vowed to continue the blackout until GeoGuessr canceled its event in Saudi Arabia and promised not to host future events there while the country's oppressive regime persists. "You don't play games with human rights," the statement concluded.
Following the backlash and confusion among fans on the GeoGuessr subreddit and social media, the company announced its withdrawal from the Esports World Cup. In a statement, CEO and co-founder Daniel Antell explained that the decision to participate was initially made with positive intentions—to engage with the Middle Eastern community and promote GeoGuessr's mission of exploring the world. However, the community's reaction made it clear that this decision did not align with GeoGuessr's values. "When you tell us we’ve got it wrong, we take it seriously," Antell said, confirming the withdrawal and promising more details on wildcard distribution soon.
The GeoGuessr community celebrated the decision, with one top comment on the subreddit stating, "Now that's a 5K"—a reference to the highest score achievable in the game. Another user praised the community's efforts, saying, "The community came together, they fought for what they wanted, and they got it done."
Despite GeoGuessr's withdrawal, numerous other games and publishers, including Dota 2, Valorant, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Rainbow Six Siege, remain committed to participating in the Esports World Cup in July.
Separately, GeoGuessr's recent release on Steam faced its own challenges, initially debuting as the second-worst-rated game on the platform. Players criticized the lack of features in the ostensibly free-to-play title, such as the inability to play solo for practice, the presence of bots in the free amateur mode, and the fact that paying for features on the browser version does not transfer to Steam. Despite these issues, the game's rating has since improved to the seventh-worst on Steam.
