Emissions of lightning-induced nitrogen oxides (LNOx) are estimated using observed lightning data from ground-based lightning detection networks on a global scale. Before calculating LNOx emissions, the lightning strikes detected by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), a global lightning detection network with low detection efficiency, are scaled (WWLLNs) based on the climatological ratios between WWLLN strikes and the lightning flashes detected by the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN), a regional lightning detection network with very high detection efficiency (> 95%) over the contiguous United States and surrounding regions. The season-averaged scaling factors over land grid cells are extrapolated onto the globe based on the grid structure from the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) to convert lightning flashes to LNOx emissions for the year 2016 using a uniform lightning production efficiency of 350 moles/flash. The estimated global LNOx emissions burden is 4.74 Tg N unevenly distributed over geographic regions and seasons. Majority of LNOx is released over land (4.38 Tg N) and in the tropical regions (− 23.5–23.5 latitude) (2.98 Tg N). The LNOx estimates derived in this study are compared with the LNOx emissions from the Global Emissions InitiAtive (GEIA) inventory, a well-established climatological emissions dataset used in many hemispheric/global atmospheric modeling applications. The objective is to produce a free publicly available global LNOx emissions dataset based on observed lightning data for retrospective air quality simulations as well as climate modeling applications.