Epic Games and Fortnite raised over $144 million in charity for Ukraine

Fortnite is doing more than just building up walls, as the behemoth battle royale video game has helped Epic Games raise over $144 million in charity for Ukraine. The crisis in Ukraine has spurred game developers and publishers to respond with charities abound, with sales from Humble Bundle and itch.io raising over $30 million in donations. Now, Epic Games is announcing that a massive amount of charity will go to Direct Relief, UNICEF, UN World Food Program, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and World Central Kitchen to support relief efforts for people displaced by the war in Ukraine.

Epic Games committed all Fortnite profits from March 20 to April 3 to humanitarian relief efforts, focusing its income to help the people of Ukraine. The charities listed above assist in providing emergency aid to those impacted by the war, by providing medical support, food and clean water, supplies, legal aid, and shelter. Epic Games also stated it will add more charities to the list in the coming weeks, presumably meaning the $144 million will go to more than just the above charities.

Relief for Ukraine

In the frequently asked questions section, Epic Games clarified it is sending funds to the relief organizations “as quickly as [it] can.” The FAQ reads, “we’re not waiting for the actual funds to come in from our platform and payment partners, which can take a while depending on how the transaction was processed. As transactions are reported, we’ll log them and send the funds to the humanitarian relief organizations within days.”

All purchases made in Fortnite counted towards supporting people affected by the war in Ukraine. This included purchases of V-Bucks, Fortnite Crews, Battle passes, cosmetics, and retail store purchases of V-Bucks cards and cosmetics. The usage of V-Bucks did not count, however, as it is not real money.