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Swearing has always been an intrinsic part of playing video games, whether in exultation, in defeat, or in anger at a fellow player. How much swearing a player does or hears, however, can vary widely depending on the game they're playing - and with whom. A recent bit of research found which of today's most popular games' players swear the most.
As one might expect, the research found several popular competitive video games home to the most swearing. In competitive multiplayer, there is a much higher chance of dying in-game or making a costly mistake than in a lower-stakes game like, say, Stardew Valley. This is particularly true with battle royale style games, where death can mean permanent elimination from a round. It also stands to reason that horror games or difficult games that cause intense frustration could have high levels of cursing among their player bases.
Buzz Bingo, a British bingo club chain, watched 15 minutes of 100 Twitch and YouTube Gaming streams, focusing on August's most popular games, according to a press release. In total, 25 hours of streams were reviewed. The number of expletives were then calculated out to find per hour, per 15 minutes, and per minute averages for individual games, platforms, and streamers.
The Video Game Player Bases Who Swear The Most
According to Buzz Bingo's data, Rainbow Six Siege players swore the most, cursing approximately 584 times per hour. Broken down, that equates to roughly one expletive every 6.16 seconds. FIFA 21 came in a close second with 552 swears per hour, followed by Call of Duty: Warzone with 484. The full breakdown of data is listed below.
- Rainbow Six Siege - 584 expletives per hour
- FIFA 21 - 552 expletives per hour
- Call of Duty: Warzone - 484 expletives per hour
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection - 436 expletives per hour
- Grand Theft Auto 5 - 428 expletives per hour
- CS: GO - 428 expletives per hour
- Fortnite - 408 expletives per hour
- Apex Legends - 396 expletives per hour
- Dark Souls 3 - 384 expletives per hour
- Chivalry 2 - 380 expletives per hour
- F1 2020 - 356 expletives per hour
- Rocket League - 340 expletives per hour
- League of Legends - 276 expletives per hour
- Resident Evil Village - 256 expletives per hour
- Forza Horizon 4 - 224 expletives per hour
Buzz Bingo also found PC gamers most likely to swear, racking up 380 expletives per hour, or one every 9.4 seconds. Xbox players were middling, with 368 swears per hour, and PlayStation s came in at 332 per hour. Interestingly, the Nintendo Switch was not ed for. While the argument could be made the portable console is designed to be family friendly, it's still host to several popular competitive games, such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and even multiplatform games included in the data, like Apex Legends.
Certain streamers, of course, are personally more prone to swearing than others. Of those surveyed, Félix "xQc" Lengyel was the most profane streamer, cursing 308 times per hour, equating to one expletive every 12 seconds. Lengyel was followed by Edwin "Castro_1021" Castro and Michael "shroud" Grzesiek, who swore 243 and 237 times per hour, respectively. Surprisingly, Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, a YouTuber with a history of controversy, swore the least of all the streamers surveyed, cursing only 48 times per hour.
It's worth noting that a game having a high expletive count does not necessarily mean it causes people to swear more. Just as each streamer varied in the number of times they swore, so too do individual players, and different games also attract different audiences. Rainbow Six Siege's high swear numbers were likely due to a combination of the dispositions of streamers surveyed, the difficulty or intensity of the game's matches, and the general kind of player the game attracts.
Source: Buzz Bingo