How a virtual space battle lost gamers £400,000

James Cunningham hadn't slept. He'd been up all night "fighting for his life".

The 27-year-old from Ware in Hertfordshire was trying to save a virtual empire from the brink of destruction - using a keyboard and mouse.

James says he "didn't expect everything to go wrong", recalling the explosive conflict that broke out in June 2025. "But it did."

He'd spent thousands of hours - up to 16 a day - and roughly £6,000 playing EVE Online, a game played by tens of thousands of people around the world.

Last year marked one of the most dramatic and expensive chapters in the game's history.

By the end of it, hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of in-game assets had been lost.

One combatant contacted BBC Your Voice hoping to draw attention to this colossal war that offers a glimpse into EVE Online's immersive digital world.

It's a universe in which players craft stories of heroism, treachery and geopolitical turmoil - and suffer real-life economic consequences.

Launched in 2003, the game is set in a fictional corner of space which gamers are free to explore as pilots. There is no rigid storyline to follow.

They can band together to form corporations - which operate like private militaries or shipping companies.

These corporations can in turn work together in vast alliances, running increasingly complex military and industrial operations which go on for years.

Many gamers become soldiers or traders, but a select few find themselves in leadership positions - commanding thousands of gamers and having massive influence over the virtual world.

Because resources and territory are limited, conflict is a core driver of the game. Trade routes are raided, borders contested, and rival alliances wage months-long wars to control regions of space.

Battles can be intense, but some players call EVE Online the "spreadsheet simulator" as most of the gameplay is slow and strategic - clicking through maps and information panels to manage ships and monitor for threats.

Every item in the game - from ships and space stations to weaponry - is manufactured by players, who can sell them to one another for in-game currency. Building these assets can take hundreds of hours, but players can also spend real money to acquire them, generating revenue for Icelandic developers Fenris Creations.

For example, a Titan-class ship is worth about £741. James Cunningham estimates he has spent about £6,000 on the game since he started playing in 2017. A high-earning friend, he says, claims to have spent closer to £30,000.

While spending money on video games is not uncommon, EVE Online stands out because players' assets can be permanently destroyed; their real-world cash outlay gone in seconds.

The game's financial system is so complex that in 2025, a former economist from the Central Bank of Iceland was hired to oversee it.

Players can amass huge virtual fortunes by mining raw materials or fighting as mercenaries, but they aren't allowed to convert in-game wealth back into real-world cash.

Playing EVE Online can take hundreds of hours. Some see it as a second job, dedicating up to 35 hours per week to their virtual duties on top of their real-world nine-to-fives.

"It will absorb all the free time you're willing to give it," James says.

The player-on-player war of 2025 didn't come about overnight. Tensions in the game had been building for years.

In 2020, rival factions clashed after a ceasefire came to an abrupt end. Some believe this was a result of personal vendettas between the factions' leaders. Fenris Creations called it "cataclysmic".

At one point, players fought continuously for 14 hours in what became known as The Massacre at M2-XFE.

This was awarded a Guinness World Record for most costly video game battle, as more than £280,000 of assets were destroyed.

The conflict triggered a "cold war" as many of the game's major alliances began plotting each other's downfall.

During this time, James was rising through the ranks to become fleet commander of one of the game's largest alliances - Pandemic Horde - tasked with directing thousands of players in battle.

He found the role hugely enjoyable, but strategising and giving commands to subordinate players in real time could be "more stressful than real life".

Before long, he noticed The Imperium - Pandemic Horde's long-time enemy - rapidly advancing towards his alliance's home.

The Imperium had been badly weakened in 2020, but had spent years rebuilding its forces.

Now it was making a epic journey across space - transporting an estimated £5m ($6.7m) worth of assets to launch an attack on its historic foe. Developers called it "the most ambitious move in EVE Online's history".

Leaders made bold decisions. Multiple players say they told their real-life employers they were too sick to work. James adapted his sleep schedule as gaming shifts were established across multiple time zones.

The Imperium's armada confronted Pandemic Horde with full force in June 2025, aiming to seize its territory.

Military campaigns planned for months reached a crescendo in a symphony of mouse clicks as rockets were fired for hours at a time. The darkness of space became a tapestry of blue and orange as ships were shot down and space stations exploded.

The pressure weighed on James.

He worried that a wrong decision could result in the destruction of assets worth tens of thousands of pounds. "It hurts to think about it as £50,000 rather than trillions of in-game currency."

The War of Ruses, as it became known, ended with Pandemic Horde's retreat.

But that was the just the beginning.

Months later, the player who had led Pandemic Horde for more than 10 years announced a shock departure.

Not only was he leaving the game, but the alliance would also be making a dangerous journey to a new part of space, as its new leaders wanted a fresh start.

Rival groups pounced, bombarding Horde's members for up to 24 hours a day as they scrambled to protect themselves and their belongings.

Pandemic Horde suffered such a staggering defeat that the group ultimately disbanded.

Estimates of the cost of the assets destroyed during the battle vary.

The EVE Online super-fan who contacted the BBC about this war shared a complex spreadsheet and believes gamers' assets worth £700,000 were lost.

But developer Fenris Creations calculates losses to be more in the region of £400,000 - stressing this is not an "official figure".

James prioritised protecting his "big-ticket items" and managed to pull off a successful escape. He lost about £200 of assets. Others, he says, were not so fortunate and lost thousands.

The overall destruction, paired with the collapse of a major alliance, made 2025 a defining year for the game. Fenris Creations reports that November and December of that year were the two highest-revenue months in the game's 23-year history.

James says the fall of Pandemic Horde, which cost him his virtual job and home, still hurts.

"Building these assets and taking territory takes a lot of time… You'd log in and that's where you and your friends are. It's like our neighbourhood - and then one day it's gone.

Many players have lost contact with each other after scattering across space in search of new adventures.

Right now, the world of EVE Online is "brimming with excitement", says creative director Bergur Finnbogason.

"A leader steps down and all of a sudden, 40,000 people were without a home, without proper leadership," he continues.

Smaller groups are now flourishing in Pandemic Horde's former territory - something Finnbogason sees as a "reset".

James now spends less time on EVE Online. He sleeps properly and has returned to a normal routine.

Like many others, he has joined a smaller alliance as he finds his place in a changed universe.

He doesn't miss the lack of sleep, but does miss the "chef's-kiss moments" when he'd finally get to execute complex battle plans he'd spent weeks, or months, planning.

Finnbogason says he doesn't know how the next chapter of the EVE Online story will unfold.

"But it's a new era, and people are paying attention."