The rapid growth of online gaming presents a unique opportunity for the Church to reach millions of people, according to experts in the space.
Jake Wilson, founder of the Christian organisation Universal eSports Network (UEN), says the number of online gamers and content creators exploring questions of faith within their gaming communities has increased dramatically in recent years.
“Spiritual, supernatural or mythic characters are a huge part of the video game sector,” he explains. “You've got video games that have elements of God, deity, angels, good versus evil; so it's very much embedded in gaming.
“Typically, there's been very little faith. But what's really exciting is that's actually exploding. In online spaces and the gaming space there’s just a crazy number of people coming to faith.”
UEN, Jake says, is a non-toxic, safe gaming environment that runs in-person and online events that always incorporate a faith element. It’s also developed its own school program, with three main 90-minute sessions offered covering Years 3-10 and another session designed for parents.
After hosting a stall at the recent Australian Catholic Youth Festival, UEN plans to run regular events at parishes and schools this year as its ministry grows.
“Our whole purpose is basically trying to be evangelistic in the video game and e-sports sector,” Jake says.
“We're about identifying the positives in gaming, helping people see those… and then providing some potential pathways forward. But we also want to be immersed in it and do what we can to really combat the negatives and add to the positives.”
A few years ago, while working in philanthropy, Jake discovered some of the jaw-dropping statistics around gaming – 82 percent of Australia’s population play some form of digital game[1] – and recognised there was no one from the faith sector active in the gaming space.
“You can argue that, outside of your family, video game and e-sports culture is now the most influential subculture in the world,” he says.
“It's almost like society hasn't caught on and is still trying to figure out what this means. But Gen Z and Gen Alpha are so engaged and so involved and it's where they make friendships, it's where they socialise, it's where they build community.
“It's growing. Nearly half of the world's population play some form of a digital game now[2]. There's no stopping it.”
After a period of discussion and planning, UEN was launched in February 2024, answering a prayer that Jake made as a teenager who loved gaming and sought to combine that with his faith.
“I just remember sitting there going, ‘God, I just want to be able to play video games and impact your kingdom,’” he says. “Fifteen years later, God actually answered that prayer and the moment I decided I was going to launch UEN, that prayer that I had completely forgotten about came back to me.”
Melbourne-based innovation technology teacher Claire Forbes, 31, has been an enthusiastic gamer since her childhood. She says there’s plenty of positives that can come from a healthy gaming experience.
“There are definitely some negatives to it, but then there are the positives where children grow in their imagination and they learn more logic and reasoning skills, and teamwork is another big one,” she says.
For the past four years Claire has led her Catholic primary school’s e-sports program, which she says has helped improve the perception of gaming within the school community.
“I love the values of the Fuse Cup where we focus on teamwork, integrity, strength and resilience,” she says. “It has really brought children to not be competitive in a negative way, but be competitive as a team who follows those values.
“It's been very successful and very positive at our school.”
Jake says the changes in gaming over the past generation have made it a challenging environment, as what was once a largely offline, private hobby has become a way of life for many.
“It's all about online, multiplayer, voice chat, it’s continual, so you are plugged in online continuously now,” he says. “It's much more customisable, so it's avatars, skins, digital items. You're getting rewarded in the game with different items.
“There are people who literally live only online in the gaming world, and there's becoming more and more pathways for that to become sustainable.
“We would say that's not a healthy thing. You have to have everything in moderation. If all you do is game and you never pick up a full-time job, then that's a problem.”
From her experience as a teacher, Claire says children in preschool – typically around the age of 4 – are starting to be introduced to gaming, making it imperative that parents are educated in the space.
“I would say probably half the year level that comes into primary school have an awareness of gaming or have engaged in it,” she says. “My role is to teach them the positive use of games and devices.
“Even when we're gaming, we need to make decisions to follow God. How do we act? How do we model Christ within our game through what we say or how we react and how manage situations? Are we choosing games that fill our soul, that give us an opportunity to build skills that lead us closer to discipleship?”
Claire points to St Carlo Acutis as a prime example of how gaming can be enjoyed without becoming an addiction.
“He’s a great model for students in learning about time management and about what's good for them,” she says. “God wants for us not to have a compulsion to these things, but to be able to use them wisely and then move on and do something else.”
Claire believes there’s a wonderful opportunity for people of faith to make an impact on the gaming culture.
“As digital missionaries, how do we continue to reach out to even younger generations who might not have the 20-minute focus to be able to listen to a speech, but might be able to learn more about Christ through a game?” she says.
“I think it’s a great place to evangelise. It might just look different to traditional evangelisation or it might look different to social media evangelisation.”
Jake says dioceses and the Church more broadly could embrace the gaming space as a new frontier of evangelisation.
“Don't be afraid of it,” he says. “Don't put it in the ‘too hard’ basket.
“We've actually got this really beautiful opportunity in society right now where the Church can lead engagement within the space where society hasn't really figured it out.
“If the Church can… start providing ministry within this space, I think we could see some incredible impact, nationally and globally.”
Images: The UEN team with Joshua Angrisano, Fr Michel Remery and Fr Rob Galea; Claire Forbes; UEN’s stall at the December 2025 Australian Catholic Youth Festival (Supplied)
Words: Matthew Biddle
[1] https://www.screenhub.com.au/news/features/australia-plays-2025-video-games-report-2677875/
[2] https://www.statista.com/topics/1680/gaming/#topicOverview