The concept of kicking back with a PlayStation in front of a webcam and watching the cash flow in is a pretty appealing one, and a modern day reality for the world’s most popular gamers.
It’s harder work than it looks though, with many spending whole days in front of a computer screen for the entertainment of the masses. Twitch, the world’s biggest streaming platform for gamers, has revolutionised the way online personalities earn money, and charities along with them.
Enter 13-year-old Twitch user zylTV, who logged on to his Fortnite stream and told his audience that his father’s cancer diagnosis had progressed to stage four. He opened the stream up to donations. Despite being new to the business, the kid raked in over $15,000 Canadian dollars, bringing a smile to his dad’s face.
It’s not always personal needs that motivate streamers to fundraise. Sometimes it’s just a poetic case of petty vengeance turned wholesome, as was the case when gamer and YouTuber Hbomberguy raised more than $300,000 for UK-based charity Mermaids, who advocate for trans and gender-diverse youth. Hbomberguy (Harry Brewis) was inspired to retaliate against Graham Linehan (most well known for creating The IT Crowd) who campaigned to have lottery funding stripped from the charity. Really backfired for Linehan seeing as how they secured the National Lottery funding after all.
Brewis’ stream had a few exceptional drawcards – first, that he had pledged to complete Donkey Kong 64 in its entirety no matter how long it took (57 hours, as it turns out). But the exposure the stream garnered from its celeb cameos truly defined its overwhelming success. At around 50 hours in, US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (affectionately referred to as AOC) appeared, sending the chat wild.
Bringing in big names has been a huge part of the success that charity gaming streams and events have had over the past few years. No longer are gamers an insular community – eSports events and tournaments gain a huge amount of public interest, especially when stars like Marshmello are taking part. The 2018 Fortnite Celebrity Pro-Am tournament saw Marshmello and Ninja (who is arguably the most recognisable gamer currently streaming) take out the top spot, winning a $1 million for a charity of their choice.
More often than not, the streamers themselves contribute huge donations of their own income to the cause. Ridiculously impressive individuals.
At GuardianCon, a yearly event that sees Twitch stars mercilessly handicap their own gameplay for the sake of the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Dr.Lupo raised nearly a $1 millions alone – fifty grand of which was out of his own pocket.
With humility rivalling the most generous of benefactors, stars like Markiplier (Mark Fischbach) are quick to recognise their fame as a platform for good. According to Forbes, Fischbach had raised over $3 million by 2017, which could only have increased exponentially since then – as of last year, he dedicated all profits from merch sales to various charities, then proceeded to bring in $500,000 in support of homeless kids on a stream earlier this year.
Gamers are the heroes we needed but didn’t deserve, defying stereotypes and sort of putting the rest of us to shame. Time to put the banter aside and recognise them as the true charitable champions.