Epic Games announced March 20 that it would be “committing all its Fortnite proceeds” to numerous humanitarian aid organizations operating in Ukraine until April 3. Just 10 minutes later, Xbox announced it would do the same with all of its “net proceeds for Fortnite.” Just a day later, it’s clear what can happen when two gaming titans partner up for a worthy cause, with Epic Games announcing that the two companies have already raised $36 million.
Together we’ve already raised $36 million USD for humanitarian relief for Ukraine. The funds will go to @UNICEF, @WFP, @Refugees, @DirectRelief. pic.twitter.com/JQESsGxDVt
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) March 21, 2022
In a tweet posted to the Fortnite account this morning, Epic Games shared that grand total, along with the organizations that would receive a slice of those funds. UNICEF, the United Nations’ World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, and Direct Relief will all have extra cash to help Ukrainian citizens thanks to Epic Games and Microsoft.
Aside from being an admirable thing to do, this partnership between Xbox and Epic Games shows just how much money Fortnite rakes in, especially when new content for the game drops. March 20 also saw the release of the game’s Chapter 3, Season 2 battle pass, which added two familiar Marvel characters: Dr. Strange and Prowler. Of course, it’s not clear how much of that $36 million came from each company, however, an FAQ posted on Fortnite’s news page explained that Epic Games’ donations are “equal to the gross purchase price of all Fortnite in-game purchases or retail purchase redemptions … excluding taxes, third-party platform fees, refunds, returns, or reversals.” Xbox’s commitment of all of its “net proceeds for Fortnite” includes “the gross proceeds net of returns & chargebacks, billing costs, bandwidth cost, operations cost, and taxes.”
The ongoing donation drive from Epic Games and Xbox is the biggest we’ve seen from the video game industry yet. Numerous members of the game industry have also either taken action against Russia or sent support to Ukraine. Notably, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have halted all sales of their products in Russia.
