Video games and e-sports: when Emmanuel Macron’s public relations swings between support and discord

He has welcomed streamers to the Élysée Palace, supported online charity events, and congratulated esports teams in public messages. And twice in three years, he has come into direct conflict with the very community he was trying to win over. The announcement that the 2026 Esports World Cup will be held in Paris from 6 July to 23 August invites us to take a closer look at the Élysée’s communication on this subject. As France reaps the rewards of its foreign policy in the Gulf states – this is the first edition of the competition to be held outside Saudi Arabia, due to the war in the Middle East – will the President’s communications follow the same twists and turns as in previous instances?

Since at least 2021, the President has been showing an increasing spirit of openness: a message to the French “League of Legends” team, a reception for esports figures at the Élysée Palace, support for the “Z Event” charity event, and announcements of international competitions to be held in France. The President is committed to promoting an industry that has become central to the global cultural landscape (the sector’s turnover has exceeded that of the film industry every year since 2016). But this positive approach is regularly disrupted. In June 2023, during the riots following the death of the young Nahel, he spoke of young people who “live out on the streets the video games that have poisoned them”. The reaction was immediate. The gaming community—massive, organised and highly active online—widely contested his remarks, given the lack of scientific consensus establishing a causal link between video games and violence.

Three months later, on 16 September 2023, Macron posted on X: “I made gamers hopping mad.” He rephrased his thoughts, acknowledged a misunderstanding, and reaffirmed his support for the industry. The statement came on the very evening of KCX3 – an event organised by Karmine Corp, a French esports club very popular with young people – which brought together nearly 30,000 people at the Paris La Défense Arena. Timing a conciliatory statement to coincide with a moment of positive excitement is a classic image management strategy.

In February 2026, history repeated itself. In an interview with Brut, the president once again raised the possibility of a link between certain violent games and certain behaviours among young people. The reactions were the same, as were the industry’s responses. A few weeks later, a new message: “I’ve (once again) ruffled gamers’ feathers”, followed by the announcement that Paris will host the e-sports World Cup this summer.

In both situations, we therefore see a four-step sequence: engagement, controversial statement, backlash, and damage control.

What is striking is not so much the existence of these missteps as the recurring pattern surrounding them. When addressing the gaming community, the President adopts a specific style: self-deprecating, lengthy posts on social media, and an explicit acknowledgement of a disconnect. The difficulty lies less in the views expressed than in the very structure of contemporary communication.

Yesterday, a negative statement to parents and a speech of support aimed at the industry existed in separate spheres: the mainstream press on one side, specialist media on the other, with the speaker controlling the timing. Today, everything is lumped together in the same news feeds. To put it another way, gamers see what Macron is saying to concerned parents or his older voters. But parents also hear what he is promising to the industry and to gamers. There is no longer any communication that is completely segmented or even compartmentalised by audience, and it is this porosity that transforms two separately coherent registers into a perceived contradiction.

Video games and esports do not have a diffuse audience. They form a structured community, with a strong collective memory and the ability to verify information in real time. This community can distinguish between a relationship built over time and a presence perceived as opportunistic. In this environment, communication threads do not disappear: they are archived, compared, and eventually form discernible patterns.

This phenomenon extends beyond the subject of esports alone. It illustrates a broader constraint of contemporary communication: when dealing with multiple affinity communities, consistency over time becomes as important as the message itself.

Eric Giuily
President of CLAI

Raphaël Caors
Senior Consultant

Camille Heinrich
Junior Consultant