Twitch streamer H.Bomberguy raked in more than $340,000 in donations for a beleaguered children’s charity during a marathon weekend stream. He did so by combining two of Twitch‘s most reliable forces: star power and charity. If the feat proves anything, it’s what networks like these are capable of when harnessed for the power of good.
The stream was a massive one (clocking in at over 57 hours) meant to benefit Mermaids, a British organization for trans and gender-nonconforming children. Mermaids was originally awarded £500,000 (about $650,000) by the National Lottery, but a public backlash led the Lottery to put the funds under review.
H. Bomberguy, who goes by Harry Brewis outside of Twitch, said in his announcement he’d already planned to stream Donkey Kong 64, a personal white whale, to completion. In response to the “woefully misinformed” media coverage, he’d decided to donate the proceeds from the stream to Mermaids.
Twitch Star Power
Charitable organizations have hosted events on Twitch almost as long as the site itself has existed. From Games Done Quick (an annual event benefiting different charities) to Extra Life (benefiting children’s hospitals), multiple organizations have leveraged Twitch‘s capacity for generosity and community spirit to raise money for worthy causes.
A Twitch spokesperson told TNW, “Over $40 million has been raised by the community for charity in 2018″ and over $100 million since the site launched in 2011.
Celebrity appearances on Twitch streams aren’t new either. Some well-known faces such as Deadmau5 and Snoop Dogg have their own Twitch channels, if rather understated ones.
You might also remember one of the highlights of last year was a team-up between Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Drake. That stream also featured several other celebrities (such as Travis Scott and JuJu Smith-Schuster) who showed up to play Fortnite with Blevins. Both their appearance and tweeted support is what drove that stream to be one of the most-viewed in Twitch’s history.
Both of these are common, or at least familiar, sights on Twitch. But this stream, in particular, was important because it combined both the surefire hit of celebrity appearances and the altruistic appeal of charitable giving, generating a massive windfall for the British charity. Read more via TNW