Annual French charity gaming marathon, Z Event, raised a staggering 3.5 million euros for the Institut Pasteur this weekend, garnering a nod of approval from none other than French President Emmanuel Macron.
Z Event Breaks Record
In its third year, Z Event brought together a host of French streaming stars and gamers in a fifty-hour gaming bonanza broadcast live over on Twitch that ran from Friday until late last night.
Last year, the event broke records with forty streamers raising over 1 million euros for Médecins Sans Frontières, but this time around, fifty-five participants cloistered themselves for three days to surge past and raise 3,510,752 € in total.
By doing so and keeping conversion rates in mind, the event has raised the highest amount in history for a charity stream event surpassing the $3.7 million raised by the Destiny-themed GuardianCon Charity Marathon Stream earlier this year.
The event was also trending on Twitter, reaching the third spot in worldwide trends and generating nearly 120,000 tweets.
President Macron Praises Event
55 gameurs français viennent de lever le temps d’un week-end plus de 3 millions d’euros au profit de l’institut Pasteur.
Vous êtes inspirants et vous nous démontrez que tout est possible pour soutenir une cause pour laquelle on croit. Bravo #ZEvent2019 !https://t.co/MlbC69uOs8— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) September 22, 2019
On Sunday night, as Z Event came to a close, French President Emmanuel Macron heaped praise on the event, saying;
55 French gamers have raised over 3 million euros for the Institut Pasteur over the course of a weekend. You are inspiring and show us that anything is possible when you support a cause you believe in. Bravo #ZEvent2019!
Macron wasn’t the only one to show his support for the Z Event either. Fortnite star Ninja also contributed a generous 26,000€ landing the spot as the top donator for the weekend.
Thank you @Ninja for your donation ! #ZEvent2019 pic.twitter.com/y99Ju1PpsY
— Z Event (@ZEventfr) September 22, 2019
The money heads to the Institut Pasteur, an international non-profit research and education foundation providing crucial advances in medicine, science, and public health all in the name of the father of vaccination and disease comprehension, Louis Pasteur.
Nous n'allons pas tenir jusqu'à la fin. C'est certain… #ZEVENT2019 pic.twitter.com/p9V3KMNZTf
— INSTITUT PASTEUR (@institutpasteur) September 22, 2019
The Institut was clearly overwhelmed by the support from viewers and Z Event, penning a few choice tweets such as the one below.