How the games industry has contributed to Aussie bushfire charities

Posted on January 8, 2020

There’s a dire situation going on in Australia with these bushfires at the moment. With over 2,000 homes damaged and destroyed, around 6.3 million hectares lost, a current death toll that stands at 23 with 6 people still missing, and hazardous smoke choking most of the southeast including some of our major cities; it’s safe to say that we’re in a pretty bad way down under.

In the face of such catastrophe, it’s easy to feel powerless and hopeless. But gamers have proven before that we do amazing things when we band together. Last year, we all came together and helped Youtuber Hbomberguy raise of $300K for trans charity Mermaids. And once again, gamers are rallying to raise money for a good cause.

Twitch troupe Click hosted a charity stream in which they raised over $300K for the NSW rural fire service, the Red Cross, and Wires (the Wildlife Infomation, Rescue, and Education Service). The stream was mainly headed by the Loserfruit alongside fellow click team members Fasffy and Crayator. It was an amazing stream and an amazing effort by these local creators.

There are also some upcoming streams where you can donate. As previously reported, GenerOzity is hosting charity steam with over 100 contributors between January 17 to 19th. The donation button is live and they’ve currently raised over $6K already. Bajo, of Good Game fame, will also be hosting a charity stream on Wednesday the 8th of Jan. the donation button is already live though there’s no information on how much as already been raised. All donations raised will be going towards Wires.

Devs are also helping raise money. Paper house, developers of indie game Paperbark will be donating their holiday sales to the Red Cross. Developer Ultimerse will also be donating at least one week’s worth of sales from their VR game Paper Fire Rookie to bushfire aid.

If you’re looking to donate directly to help with the bushfires, your best options are the Red Cross, Wires, or the CFA and RFS. The situation here is pretty dire, and it will take all hands on deck to even start fixing this mess. We’ll try our best to keep this article updated with more information on the great work the gaming community is doing to support during this tough time.