Fortnite raises $144 million total in fundraising for Ukraine

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Proceeds will go to multiple humanitarian organisations.

The Fortnite Battlebus.
(Image credit: Epic Games)

Fortnite's fundraising period for Ukraine relief efforts has come to an end, with the Battle Royale game amassing a remarkable $144 million over a period of two weeks. The final total of proceeds will be split between five humanitarian organisations currently operating in Ukraine, namely UNICEF, Direct Relief, World Food Programme, World Central Kitchen, and the UN Refugee Agency.

Epic Games originally announced the fundraising effort on March 20, stating that for two weeks all profits from in-game sales would go toward humanitarian relief in Ukraine. Xbox also joined in the fundraising effort, committing its own proceeds from Fortnite through the period. Epic announced the final total via a tweet on the official Fortnite Twitter account:

The drive coincided with the release of Fortnite's Chapter 3, Season 2, during which period in-game purchases will be at their highest. The resulting funds raised makes Epic one of the largest corporate donors to humanitarian efforts in the Russo-Ukraine war, if not the largest outright. It's difficult to quantify exactly where Epic's contribution stands, but the amount is equivalent to the contribution of some entire countries. For context, according to this list tracking donations to Ukraine, the Czech Republic donated $66 million in aid to Ukrainian refugees, plus a further $13.2 million in humanitarian aid to civilians still in Ukraine (these figures do not include the Czech Republic's contributions in military aid).

In short, it's a massive amount of money going to an extremely worthy cause. In its most recent situation report, UNICEF stated that as of 31 March, an estimated 4 million people had fled Russia's attack on Ukraine to other countries, while a further 6.5 million people have been displaced within Ukraine itself.

Rick Lane
Contributor

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.