Fighting game pro SonicFox raises $22,150 for charity in 72-hour livestream

SonicFox may be the best fighting game player on the planet, winning championships for Mortal Kombat, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and more. He's not, as it turns out, quite as good at singing, but that's one of many things he did over the weekend during a 72-hour livestream, raising money for The Trevor Project. Over the course of three days, SonicFox's viewers donated more than $22,000 for the charity, which provides support to LGBTQ youth.

SonicFox spent a good chunk of the weekend playing through the Mortal Kombat and Injustice story modes, but he took breaks to play the piano, sing, and shave his mustache. That last one was for reaching the $20,000 milestone, and it's a great moment. "Oh god, this is terrible!" he says while he starts. "I've never shaved my mustache." By the end, though, he was into it.

There's also my personal favorite moment: Naruto running (in place) in a seemingly tiny room, the tongue of his fursuit helmet flapping up and down.

"Trans rights" was the recurring message of the stream, and at one point SonicFox wrote the words on his chest after a $500 donation. He also wrote "memes" on his forehead—it's a fun and lighthearted stream, and thanks to breaks and guest hosts SonicFox didn't run himself ragged by the end of it. "Time flies when you're helping trans people," one of the streamers says near the end.

SonicFox's stream was inspired by a similar marathon by Youtuber HBomberguy, who raised $340,000 earlier this year for transgender charity Mermaids, and included surprise appearances from Chelsea Manning and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Wes Fenlon
Senior Editor

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).

TOPICS