Epic Games raises $36 million for Ukraine in first day of new Fortnite season

Fortnite developer Epic Games has made a huge commitment to help provide humanitarian relief in Ukraine.

The highly anticipated second season of Fortnite Chapter 3 kicked off yesterday, and fans were shocked to find building fully disabled in public matches. Like it or hate it, the news certainly won the attention of many players who haven’t touched the game in a long time.

Alongside the launch, Epic Games announced that they would be donating all Fortnite proceeds from March 20 through April 3 to humanitarian relief for those affected by the war in Ukraine. Microsoft also committed their net proceeds from Fortnite-related sales to the cause.

Purchases of V-Bucks packs, Fortnite Crew subscriptions, gifted Battle Passes, and real-money cosmetic packs, as well as certain retail store purchases are all included. The main thing that doesn’t count is using V-Bucks to buy something in the Item Shop, since this is not a real-money purchase.

Starting this initiative at the beginning of a new season is especially potent, as the fresh Battle Pass and influx in players means that this is where Epic makes the most money. No doubt Marvel lovers will be rushing to get their hands on the C3:S2 Battle Pass, headlined by supreme sorcerer, Doctor Strange.

Now, just 24 hours after Season 2 went live, Epic has revealed their proceeds for the first day. “Together we’ve already raised $36 million USD for humanitarian relief for Ukraine”, they shared via the official @FortniteGame Twitter account.

This is a staggering figure for such a short amount of time, and it will be very exciting to watch this grow over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, this will also inspire other major gaming companies to follow suit.

The funds will be going to Direct Relief, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP), and The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Epic has stated that they will get the money to these organisations within days of transactions being reported, rather than waiting to receive the actual funds from their payment providers.

Earlier this month, Epic was forced to suspend prizing payments to players living in Russia due to new restrictions from their payment provider.