Electronic Arts (E.A.)

• Since its launch in 2016, E.A's Play to Give program has been donating a total of $1 million to charitable organizations on behalf of their players.

• ·Through the E.A. Play, gamers on E.A's platform take part in a five-game challenge that the gaming platform designs to support the program.
• The charities that benefit include the United Nation's HeForShe, PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center, and Ditch the Label.
• In 2013 in collaboration with Humble Bundle, E.A. launched The Humble Origin- which enabled its gamers to buy ten games for about a discounted price of five dollars. Proceeds from this bundle were divided among five charities: American Red Cross, Watsi, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Human Rights Campaign, and American Cancer Society.
• In record-breaking time, EA had received donations of over $4 million from over 850,000 donors in 2 days. In totality, the campaign sold over 2 million bundles and raised over $10.5 million for charity.
• Since then, a selection of EA games has been available on the Humble Bundle store; heavily discounted and a significant portion of the sales being donated to charity.
• E.A's website notes that to date, $1.1 million has been donated by EA employees towards charitable organizations, with E. A matching their employees' donations with an additional $350,000. The website further notes that E.A has donated $900,000 in grants to charity. It is not clear which specific charities benefited, but the website notes that E.A is continuously committed to its outreach and social impact activities.

Xbox Game Studios

• Xbox launched Gaming and Giving for Good (G3), a live charity event in 2011. It initially started as a charity event to raise funds for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. By 2019's event, denoted by the hashtag #GIVEWITHXBOX, G3 had raised $1million through online gaming by its players. The funds raised were distributed to 4 charities: Child's Play, Gamers' Outreach, SpecialEffect and Operation Supply Drop (OSD).

Notable Mentions

Desert Bus for Hope

• This is a charity gaming marathon that was launched in 2004. In its 12 years of existence, it has raised over $5 million in philanthropic giving. Child's Play is its only beneficiary.
• The funds are raised by gamers who bid to drive the virtual bus, Desert Bus, for one hour. Each preceding hour's rate is 70% higher than the previous hour. In 2018, the marathon fund-raised $730,289.37, its biggest amount yet, in six non-stop days.

Games Done Quick

•  Games Done Quick is a series of game marathons aimed at raising money for charity. Since its inception in 2010, it has raised over $22 million for various charities. Some charities that have benefited include Doctors Without Borders and the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Gamers play high-level games and show their impressive speedrunning skills, whose proceeds go to the predetermined charities. In 2020, Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) raised $3.1 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Research Strategy

Blizzard Entertainment -- In-game Donations

• In May 2018, Blizzard ran a two-week campaign for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
• During the campaign, players were able to purchase a $15 pink-colored "legendary" skin for Mercy, one of the game's most prolific characters.
• The campaign raised $12.7 million over the two-week period, in which 100% of the proceeds were made into donations.
• Blizzard's donation became the largest corporate donation in the history of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation within a one-year period.
• Blizzard has also partnered with a multitude of charities in the past, such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the American Red Cross's Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief efforts, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Epic Games -- Fortnite Charity Livestreams

• In June 2018, Epic Games announced a charity event in which streamers and celebrities would team up in Fortnite -- the winning duo, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins and Christopher "Marshmello" Comstock, were able to donate $1 million to any charity of their choice, and the remaining $2 million was split between the top ten teams at the same discretion.

• Being Fortnite's most prolific player and streamer, Ninja has done other charity work in tandem with Epic Games before, such as a livestream at Guardiancon in 2018, in which Blevins raised $2.7 million for St. Jude Children's Hospital.
• Epic Games has also supported game developers, enterprise professionals, students, educators, and various creators with its "MegaGrants" campaign. As of 2020, Epic Games has given $100 million in financial grants.

Riot Games -- Charity Tournaments

• During the 2018 All Stars Event, Riot Games hosted a tournament in which the winning duo would be able to donate $100,000 to a charity of their choice.
• The runner-ups were given $25,000 at the same discretion, and all eight participating teams were given a $10,000 minimum for charity as well.
• The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention won the $100,000 prize pool, with the Korean Association for Safe Communities coming in at second with a $25,000 donation.
• During their League of Legends World's Tournament in 2017, Riot Games hosted an in-game fundraiser to support BasicNeeds, a group dedicated to helping individuals with mental illness, Learning Equality, a program designed to offer digital education for students in over 175 countries, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which used its funds to create 5,000 "coding dojos" for youth across South America, India, China, and East Africa.
• Players raised $2.4 million through the in-game fundraiser, which consisted of players buying cosmetic products, which were then given as donations.
• BasicNeeds currently serves over 700,000 people worldwide in 15 countries.
• Learning Equality is estimated to have reached 4.5 million students so far.

Mermaids -- Charity Livestreams

• In January 2019, Harry "hbomberguy" Brewis responded to transphobic comments with a Donkey Kong 64 marathon stream to raise money for Mermaids, a youth transgender charity based in the UK.
• The livestream was hosted on Twitch and lasted 57 hours and 48 minutes, raising $340,000.
•  Notable celebrities such as Cher, Chelsea Manning, John Romero, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed and interacted with the livestream.