- Epic Games’ fundraising campaign gained $36 million in 24 hours
- The money will be sent to various humanitarian organizations, helping war-affected Ukrainians
- The campaign will last until April 3
Epic Games raised over $36 million through the sale of battle passes for humanitarian aid for people affected by the war in Ukraine in just 24 hours.
An Astounding Fundraising Campaign
On March 20, Epic Games launched the next season of Fortnite, announcing it is teaming up with Xbox to gather funds for humanitarian aid for the affected by the war in Ukraine. About 24 hours after the start of the season, Epic has revealed that it has already raised a whopping $36 million.
The funds generated by selling battle passes for Fortnite’s Chapter 2 Season 2 from the period of March 20 to April 3 will go directly for organizations like Direct Relief and UNICEF, said Epic games in their official statement. Other funds that will go towards humanitarian aid for Ukraine will be generated by the sales of V-Buck packs and cosmetic packs sold for real money.
Epic said in the news post that the company will be sending the funds “As quickly as we can”, adding that it wouldn't be waiting for the actual donation transactions to be fully processed before sending them to the charities. “As transactions are reported, we'll log them and send the funds to the humanitarian relief organizations within days,” the post read. Xbox is also donating all proceeds made in the Xbox version of Fortnite for the next two weeks too.
Other Companies and Organizations Are Helping in Humanitarian Crisis
With Russia invading Ukraine in the early hours of February 24, many governments, especially European Union members, have condemned President Vladimir Putin’s actions. This unleashed a flurry of economic sanctions on Russia, whose aim is to force the Russian government to the negotiating table to end the war as quickly as possible.
Following that, many companies have either restricted their sales in Russia or have fully backed away from the country. This includes tech giants like Microsoft, Valve, and others. Epic Games stopped sales in Russia a couple of weeks ago and is now raising funds to help in the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Eastern Europe. More than 3.5 million people have fled the country according to data from UNHCR, with almost twice as many being internally displaced.
This crisis, the likes of which Europe has not seen since the Second world war, has also touched the gaming world, with many organizations, companies, and players donating money for humanitarian relief. Another successful campaign was made by Riot Games, which raised over $3 million for humanitarian aid. Many esports organizations and teams have made campaigns to raise money, like Team Liquid, who made a WoW charity stream.
