Image: Epic Games
The latest season of Fortnite has kicked off, and Epic is channeling all the money gained from its in-game purchases into Ukraine relief.
Epic Games announced earlier this week that all Fortnite proceeds from March 20 to April 3, 2022 will go towards humanitarian relief supporting people affected by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Today, the developer revealed that it has already raised $50,000,000 from players making in-game purchases, despite there still being over a week left to raise more funds.
In a blog post explaining where these funds are going, Epic also mentioned that Xbox has joined in to pour their net proceeds for Fortnite to aid the people of Ukraine. These funds will go to humanitarian relief organisations providing on-the-ground aid, which includes health support, food, water, supplies, legal aid and shelter. A full list of the organisations is available on Epic’s website, but more names will be added to the list over the next few weeks.
Raising a whopping $50 million is impressive, but that number can be partially attributed to good timing. Epic Games just launched Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2, which adds a host of gameplay changes and new locations to Battle Royale. The game almost resembles Apex Legends now, as the ability to build structures has been temporarily removed and a parkour system called ‘Mantling’ has been added to let players get around the map quicker.
Season 2’s new Battle Pass includes Marvel characters like Doctor Strange and the Prowler, so of course players are hopping on to spend their V-Bucks on all these new cosmetics. Epic has also confirmed that these funds will be sent towards Ukraine relief, “as quickly as we can,” as the company won’t be waiting for player transactions to be processed. As soon as in-game purchases are reported, Epic will log them and send the funds over immediately.
If you’d like to jump into Fortnite’s new season, you can do so knowing that your Battle Pass purchases are supporting a good cause.
