Associations want to mobilize sports players to support Ukraine

Helping to rebuild a clinic in Ukraine by playing Fortnite is an initiative launched by the Ukrainian government’s fundraising platform UNITED24, the “Stand with Ukraine” collective and Havas Play, a branch of French advertising group dedicated to video games.

Starting Wednesday, #TheDonationMap is offering visitors a specially created map for the occasion, called an “island” in the game, that recreates the grounds in the center of Kyiv. Funds raised by Player Connection will be used to rebuild a clinic in Mykolaiv, a large city in southern Ukraine. According to preliminary figures provided by Havas, #TheDonationMap welcomed more than 3,000 players in 24 hours.

American Giant Epic Games’ hugely popular online game allows fans to create their spaces and then invite other players to connect. Since March 2023, it has paid successful creators through a monetization program, in which part of the money raised in the game is redistributed through the sale of costumes or dances.

The higher the number of players on the map, the more time they spend there and the higher the remuneration. According to figures released by Epic Games in May, these payouts range from $100 to $10 million per year for a few of the most popular creators.

Everything you need to know about Fortnite video games

If Fortnite is a “battle royale”, i.e. a game where participants compete on a defined field with a full range of weapons until they come in last place, there’s no risk of seeing #TheDonationMap’s virtual arena transformed into a battlefield: The creators have removed weapons from their world and prevented any possibility of destroying the environment. Many video game studios raised funds for humanitarian organizations at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for example by donating profits from their sales.