The Yogscast Raise £500k For Charity In Just Three Hours
'Tis the season for giving and sharing... and release of some highly-anticipated AAA games here and there. However, it seems the Christmas spirit has already sprouted its tinsel-covered head on Twitch as one group of streamers managed to raise $500,000 in just three hours.
Xbox may have kicked off the festive season early by randomly sending out some generous giftcards to players, but the streaming community is already all a flutter with the Christmas buzz. With numerous streamers already hosting Yuletide-themed content, one team of streamers has gone above and beyond to capture the true giving nature of Christmas.
Bristol-based streaming collective 'The Yogscast' began its annual Jingle Jam streaming event on December 1. Only three hours into the very first stream, the team managed to raise £500,000 thanks to the generous donations from viewers.
Who Are The Yogscast?
If you are unfamiliar with The Yogscast, the British streaming group have been creating and hosting game-related content since its establishment by founders Lewis "Xephos" Brindley and Simon "Honeydew" Lane in 2008. Since then, the group has gone on to gain 7.15 million subscribers and 4 billion views on YouTube. What started as just Brindley and Lane publishing World Of Warcraft guides, now has a whole weekly timetable dedicated to different Twitch streams.
Yogscast rose to prominence thanks to its Minecraft playthroughs, and the rest is history. As well as streaming games, Yogscast has gone on to hold in-person videos with Star Wars and Harry Potter star Warwick Davies as well as the Xenomorph hunter herself, Sigourney Weaver. The streaming collective then moved into publishing its own games with Caveblazers in 2017.
How Did The Yogscast Raise the £500k?
Yogscast regularly provides its followers with creative and entertaining content. However, it is the team's annual Christmas charity fundraiser which gets everyone's bells jingling. In December each year, Yogscast hosts the Jingle Jam- two weeks of daily Twitch videos to help spread festive cheer and to raise money for charity. While the first fundraiser in 2011 raised an impressive £66,040.30, the teams ever-increasing popularity has helped the team reel in some mind-blowing figures over the years. For example, during the group's first stream on the very first day of the event, the group managed to raise £500,000 after just three hours of going live.
Twitch streamers can certainly earn a hefty pay cheque through the platform. However, many take the opportunity to share their earnings with others, such as Leslie "Fuslie" Fu who raised $55,730 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Not to mention, there was Tyler "Trainwrecks" Niknam who sent a fellow streamer's mum $64,000 over Twitch.
As of writing, The Yogscast has managed to raise £966,187.80 in only the 2nd day of the Jingle Jam. Fans who wish to get themselves on the nice list and donate some money to the cause can donate right here.
