YouTube/DrLupo/Epic GamesPopular Fortnite streamer Ben “DrLupo” Lupo managed to raise an incredible $920,000 for a children’s hospital in Memphis in just four hours, during a a week-long charity stream run by GuardianCon.
Forbes reports that the stream ran in four-hour blocks, with various streamers, teams, and developers taking part across the week. Destiny studio Bungie raised a fantastic $400,000 during its own slot, and the combined efforts of everyone involved raked well over the target $3 million, with all of the $3,721,097 raised going directly to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
With 10,752 unique donations, the @GuardianCon finale with @DrLupo raised $920,343.98 in 4 1/2 hours, bringing @GuardianCon's total for the year to over $3.7 million for the kids of @StJude
Absolutely mind-blowing.
Thank you 💚 pic.twitter.com/QqjjbL5htr— Tiltify (@WeAreTiltify) June 23, 2019
While everyone who gave their time and money should of course be incredibly proud of what they managed to achieve, DrLupo’s slot was by far the most lucrative, with Forbes calcuating that total equated to around $3,400 a minute. Donations came from the likes of Ninja, ItsmeJP, and State Farm Insurance, which is… unexpected, but $100,000 to charity is $100,000 to charity whichever you slice it.
DrLupo, like everyone who participated, put in place various incentives to get people to donate as much as possible. In addition to raffle entries and handicaps like drop certain weapons or restrict himself from enterting certain buildings, there were also a few larger goals, such as have his son play Fortnite (at $350,000) and his wife play Resident Evil (at $500,000).
Unfortunately, DrLupo fell just shy of his target of $1 million, which would have seen him perform Ninja’s signature dance – the Pon Pon – live on stream. While that would’ve been a joy to behold, there’s no denying what we got was four hours of heartwarming joy that reminded me of the very best of this community.
GuardianCon itself will kick off in Orlando the weekend after July 4, and the plan is to raise even more money for St. Jude there. The event started as a small Destiny convention with panels and developer talks a few years back, but has since grown into a massive beast – and a genuine force for good.
Hopefully next year DrLupo can smash the impressive record he’s set for himself, and we’ll finally get to see him Pon Pon like a pro.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.