Helping rebuild clinics in Ukraine by playing “Fortnite” is an initiative launched by the Ukrainian government’s fundraising campaign platform UNITED24, the “Stand with Ukraine” collective and Havas Play, the video game arm of French advertising group.
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#TheDonationMap is offering a jump on Wednesday to a specially created map for the occasion, called an “island” in the game, which 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 space and then invite other players to connect. Since March 2023, it has paid successful creators through a monetization program, which redistributes part of the money raised in the game through costume or dance sales.
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.
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 is no risk of seeing #TheDonationMap’s virtual arena. 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.
#TheDonationMap claims to be the first initiative that allows players to participate without paying a single cent.
In 2022, Epic Games also committed to donating $144 million to humanitarian aid in Ukraine, meaning all of its profits from “Fortnite” were collected for two weeks.
