GeoGuessr Pulls Out of Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia After Fan and Creator Backlash: 'When You Tell Us We’ve Got It Wrong, We Take It Seriously'

GeoGuessr has withdrawn from the Esports World Cup after players and map creators slammed the team for participating in the event that, controversially, will be hosted by Saudi Arabia later this summer.

GeoGuessr is tremendously successful, boasting 85 million users in a geography game that drops players in random places around the world and asks them to work out where they are. There's a whole host of developer and community-made customization options that let players tailor not only who they play against, but also what maps will spawn, if they'll be dropped into an urban or rural setting, restrict spawns to certain geographical regions, toggle the ability to move, pan, or zoom — or not move, pan or zoom (NMPZ) — and more, including a smorgasbord of fantastic community-made custom maps. It's long been an esports staple.

However, yesterday (May 22), Zemmip — posting on behalf of "creators of a considerable share of GeoGuessr's most popular maps" — staged a "blackout," making its maps unplayable in protest at the "company's decision to host a World Championship wildcard tourney at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh."

"Groups targeted by the government include women, LGBTQ people, apostates and atheists, political dissenters, migrant workers in the Kafala system, religious minorities, and many others," Zemmip said on the GeoGuessr subreddit. "The subjugation of these groups is extensive and pervasive. Members of these groups are routinely subjected to discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and even public executions. These severe human rights violations are well-documented and indisputable.

"By participating in the EWC, GeoGuessr is contributing to that sportswashing agenda, which is designed to take attention away from Saudi Arabia's human rights violations," the statement added.

The blackout included dozens of creators and their maps, "including a supermajority of the most popular competitively relevant world maps." The organizers said the blackout would continue until "GeoGuessr cancels its wildcard event in Saudi Arabia and commits to not hosting any events there as long as it continues its oppressive regime."

"You don't play games with human rights," the statement concluded.

After dozens of messages popped up on the subreddit and social media from confused fans wondering why their maps were blacked out, GeoGuessr posted a statement first this morning (May 22), stating it had listened to its community and would be withdrawing from the event.

"We will not participate in the EWC," the statement from CEO and co-founder Daniel Antell read. "I’ve seen your reactions over the past few days regarding our decision to participate in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh.

"When we made that decision, it was with positive intentions. To engage with our community in the Middle East and to spread GeoGuessr’s core mission of let everyone Explore the World. Since Erland, Anton, and I founded GeoGuessr in 2013, we’ve always strived to be a community-first game. Everyone here at the Stockholm office is a passionate GeoGuessr fan, doing our best to build something meaningful, with you and for you.

"That said, you — our community — have made it clear that this decision does not align what GeoGuessr stands for," the statement continued. "So, when you tell us we’ve got it wrong, we take it seriously. That’s why we’ve made the decision to withdraw from participating in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. We will come back with information on how the wildcards will be distributed as soon as possible. Thank you for speaking up and sharing your thoughts."

The top reply on the GeoGuessr subreddit currently reads: "Now that's a 5K" — 5K is the very top score you can achieve when finding an exact location in the game.

"The community came together, they fought for what the[y] wanted, and they got it done," added another.

IGN has asked the Esports World Cup for comment.

There are still dozens of games and publishers participating in the event in July, however, including Dota 2, Valorant, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Rainbow Six Siege, as well as many others.

GeoGuessr released on Steam last week, debuting as the second-worst-rated game of all time (although it's since improved, moving to the seventh-worst-rated game on the platform). Fans took issue with missing features on the ostensibly free-to-play title, including the fact you cannot play alone, not even to practise and improve. The free amateur mode seems to be full of bots rather than real-life players. And perhaps most surprisingly of all, even if you pay to unlock the features on the browser version, this does not carry over to Steam.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.