Twitch.tv allow viewers to make donations to
their favourite streamers. Thanks to this, users can support creators in a very
direct way. They can offer the amount they want by using a credit/debit card or
a PayPal account. You can also write a message with the donation and most of the
time it will be shown to every viewers of the stream. By using that feature,
streamers can organize charity event. All the donations made during a
particular stream will be donated to a structure or an association. Those
events have been rising since the years 2010. The first major example is called
“Extra Life”.
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| Source : https://twitchfan.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/extra-life-twitch-weekend-marathons/ |
That fundraiser event started in 2008 on
Twitch. During a weekend, loads of streamers are making a 12-hour stream.
During those lives, every donation goes directly to the hospitals thanks the branches
of the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. As it is an online event, every
streamer can participate. The first edition gathered 1200 gamers to raise a
total amount of 120,000 US dollars. Three years later, more than 15 thousand
gamers raised 1.1 million dollars. In 2019, 50 thousand streamers gathered to
give 14 million to help hospitals in the United States. This shows how the
popularity of charity event have risen on Twitch. Viewers love to donate during
those streams because streamers are creating special content for the event and
it helps useful associations.
Another charity event is the “Zevent”. This is
the French biggest charity event on Twitch, organised by Zerator and Dash. The
difference between Extra Life and the Zevent is that the French streamers are
gathering in a same place to create content to entertain viewers. Since the
first edition, the fund raised by the Zevent has always improved. From 500
thousand euro in 2016, the fifth edition which was 2 weeks ago (16th, 17th and 18th October) raised 5.7 million euro.
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| Source:https://twitter.com/ZeratoR/ |
But how streamers can reach such a significant amount?
They are creating unique content when they will reach a certain amount of
donation on their stream. This is called “Donation Goals”. The idea of helping
an association and having unique content will motivate viewers to donate. Here
you can see an example of Donation Goals on the right of Zerator’s stream. For
example, when he raised 350 thousand euro on his own stream, he will give a console
to 35 random donators. At 500 thousand he promised to produce his own music album.
You can also see the difference of donations through the year. It shows the rising
interest of viewers among the years.
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| Source:https://www.twitch.tv/zerator |
Some
streamers are doing events with other participants for their donation goals.
The funniest one was the fake wedding between two good friends. A ceremony has
been held and with a fake mayor and a fake priest. Also, a very famous TV show has
been made with the real presenter. Some tournaments, cosplay and even beard
shaving were here to entertain viewers and raise money.
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| Source:https://twitter.com/Jeel_TV |
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| Source:https://twitter.com/Jeel_TV |
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| Source:https://twitter.com/MoMaNuS |
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| Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5u_nBVY-gM |
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| Source:https://twitter.com/poncefleur |
Twitch is a good support for charity event. The
interaction between viewers and streamers allow them to send good messages such
as donate to an association. By gathering streamers, communities are also
brought together. It creates a huge amount of people working for a good cause. None
of this would be possible without the streamers. They are making efforts to
entertain people for 50 hours to support an association. From a gaming platform,
Twitch is becoming a social media which shows the power of communities in a
very good way.
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