GeoGuessr has withdrawn from the Esports World Cup following significant backlash from players and map creators over the event's controversial hosting by Saudi Arabia this summer.

GeoGuessr, an immensely popular geography game with 85 million users, challenges players to pinpoint their location after being dropped into random spots worldwide. The game offers extensive customization, allowing players to choose their opponents, select specific maps, decide between urban or rural settings, restrict geographical regions, and toggle movement, panning, or zooming options, including the popular No Move, Pan, or Zoom (NMPZ) mode. Additionally, the community has contributed a wealth of custom maps, making GeoGuessr a beloved fixture in the esports community.

On May 22, Zemmip, representing a significant portion of GeoGuessr's most popular map creators, initiated a "blackout," rendering their maps unplayable as a protest against GeoGuessr's decision to participate in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. Zemmip highlighted the severe human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, targeting groups such as women, the LGBTQ community, apostates, atheists, political dissenters, migrant workers under the Kafala system, and religious minorities. These groups face widespread discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and even public executions.

"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," Zemmip stated on the GeoGuessr subreddit. The blackout involved numerous creators and their maps, including the majority of the most popular competitive world maps. The protest would persist until GeoGuessr canceled its wildcard event in Saudi Arabia and committed to not hosting any events there while the oppressive regime continues.

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

GeoGuessr has pulled out of the Esports World Cup after a backlash.

After fans expressed confusion over the map blackout on the subreddit and social media, GeoGuessr responded on May 22 with a statement from CEO and co-founder Daniel Antell, announcing their withdrawal from the event. "We will not participate in the EWC," Antell wrote. He acknowledged the community's feedback, explaining that the initial decision was made with the intent to engage with the Middle Eastern community and spread GeoGuessr's mission of exploring the world. However, the community's response made it clear that this decision conflicted with GeoGuessr's values.

"When you tell us we’ve got it wrong, we take it seriously," Antell continued. "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 praised the decision, with one user saying, "Now that's a 5K," referencing the highest possible score in the game. Another user added, "The community came together, they fought for what they wanted, and they got it done."

IGN has reached out to the Esports World Cup for comment.

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, among others, will still participate in the event in July.

GeoGuessr's recent release on Steam faced criticism, initially debuting as the second-worst-rated game of all time on the platform. It has since improved to the seventh-worst-rated game. Players criticized the lack of features in the free-to-play version, such as the inability to play solo, the presence of bots in amateur mode, and the fact that paying for features on the browser version does not transfer to the Steam version.