Fortnite continues to provide millions of dollars in immediate aid for Ukraine. The latest update from Epic is big, announcing that as of March 25 it has raised over $70 million in aid for charities and groups supporting Ukrainians during the ongoing and horrific Russian invasion of the country.
In a blog first posted on March 20 on Epic’s official news page and since updated on March 25, the company explained that players have helped raise over $70 million that will go to support folks in Ukraine during the war. This is part of Epic’s ongoing plans to donate proceeds from all “real-money” purchases made in Fortnite between March 20 through April 3.
Epic had already raised over $35 million to help Ukraine in just one day using Fortnite. It should be noted that Xbox is also donating all proceeds made in the Xbox version of Fortnite for the next two weeks, too.
Interestingly, Epic also announced back in its initial March 20 blog post that it won’t be waiting for the funds to clear before donating the money it has raised. Instead, Epic will send the funds to the charities only days after the “transactions are reported.” It explained that it was doing this because waiting for the “actual funds to come in from our platform and payment partners” could take a long time. So it’s using its own money and resources to speed up the process.
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According to Epic, all the funds raised will then be donated to a number of charity organizations, which include Direct Relief, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the World Food Program.
Meanwhile, also announced on March 25 was news from Humble Bundle that its own, separate Ukraine charity game package had raised over $20 million. That goes along with an earlier Itch.io bundle that raised over $6 million.
This money is much-needed by folks living in Ukraine who are dealing with the ongoing and deadly invasion by Russia. The war has already led to thousands dead and injured. It has also forced over 3 million people to flee the country, creating a large and growing refugee crisis.