One Twitch streamer is using his full-time career and fame on the platform to partner with St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital for the holiday season.
Benjamin Lupo, who is known on the game-streaming platform as DrLupo, hopes to raise $2 million for St. Jude during the 24-hour Play Live event on Saturday, December 21, The Washington Post reports.
“I’m just another guy that likes to play video games and got put in a position where I could use this platform to do good in the world,” Lupo told The Washington Post. “And so I’ve kind of jumped on board with that as much as I can.”
Last year, Lupo also partnered with the organization and was able to raise $920,000. To reach his monetary goal this year, Lupo plans to engage his fans during the Twitch livestream by offering incentives like prize pools and donation tier rewards. The 24-hour livestream will begin at 10 a.m. PT.
“The competition is not between us, the competition is between the people that are suffering and how much money we can raise,” Lupo said in a promotional video about the fundraiser.
Lupo also wants to raise the money through people purchasing his Build Against Cancer T-shirt, which is available on his Twitch channel. He’s already raised more than $7,400 in T-shirt sales alone.
Overall, the yearly Play Live event has raised more than $18 million since its debut in 2014. Other popular Twitch streamers like The Game Theorists’ MatPat and Stephanie Patrick have also taken part in the cause.
Aside from Lupo’s philanthropic work, he was also named as one of Time’s 25 most influential people on the internet this year. He has more than 3.6 million followers on Twitch.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, Twitch has more than 15 million daily active users and between 2.2 million and 3.2 million monthly broadcasters. As the Twitch platform is becoming more and more popular, top streamers who are making money from the platform are getting involved in more charity work through the platform.
Twitch has three different charity extensions that broadcasters can support to help cure cancer, end hunger, and raise awareness. These include Tiltify Donations, DonorDrive, and GameChanger.
