G Fuel and a competitor called GungHo are a new incarnation of energy drink, growing in popularity while the energy drink industry as a whole has been under scrutiny because of deaths and hospitalizations linked to consumption of caffeine- and sugar-laden beverages. Traditional energy drink makers have also been playing to the growing gamer culture in some labels — Mountain Dew Game Fuel (with extra doses of caffeine) and Nintendo Powerup Energy Drink. The Facebook page for Monster Energy Gaming declares: “Next time you are looking for some gaming fuel, grab a Monster Energy and Unleash the Beast on some noobs!”
The newer gamer drinks are sugar-free and vitamin-infused, but they often contain caffeine that rivals or exceeds that of some other well-known products, according to Caffeine Informer, a website that provides scientific and consumer information on caffeine levels in food and drink.
One maker promises a drink to enhance “brain energy,” while another calls it his “natural Adderall.”
In Melbourne, Australia, Finlay Sturzaker spent 100 Australian dollars to order several tubs of a powdered G Fuel drink, only to have his father confiscate it, he said. Finlay, 14, said he found out about the drink on YouTube through the FaZe Call of Duty clan in the commercials. They’re his favorite YouTubers, he said.
“It makes me more focused while playing Call of Duty and I definitely see improvement, and it gives me very natural energy,” he said.
Ethan Yorke, a high school junior in Lancaster, Calif., said drinking G Fuel helped him improve his home run average significantly on an MLB baseball video game he plays (though he lamented that the drink is too expensive for him to consume regularly).
“It really feels like you have genuine energy, like you’ve just had a 30-minute-to-an-hour nap,” he said. “And you just have pure energy.”
