GameStop Redditors are using their stock winnings to adopt gorillas

News
By published

One charity reports over $77,000 in donations from WallStreetBets.

An adorable gorilla, funded by Gamestop redditors
(Image credit: Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund)

GameStop's sudden surge created plenty of unexpected winners. But I don't think anyone was expecting endangered gorilla charities to come out on top of Reddit's absurd market antics.

Spotted by The Gamer, the last weekend has seen dozens of regulars on the WallStreetBets subreddit turn their GameStop stock gains into donations to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. On Sunday, the ape charity reported that they'd received over $77,000 in donations in one day, prompting CEO Tara Stoinski to record a shout-out to the subreddit.

A message to WSB from the Director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund! from r/wallstreetbets

Of course, this charitable turn has its roots in the deep, irony-poisoned memes of Reddit culture. The WallStreetBets community's whole schtick is that they're dumb "apes" and "gorillas", in opposition to the supposed genius billionaires you'd more readily associate with market trading. 

Even so, this is one quietly positive outcome of GameStop's latest stock surge, which has been steadily sitting above $250 for most of March. Gorillas aren't even the only beneficiary either. One Redditor bucked the trend by donating $75 towards the adoption of a Peregrine Falcon.

GameStop's unexpected turn into a stock market battleground has already seen two plans drawn up for three separate movies from MGM, Netflix and HBO. While the former is being drawn from the same well as Facebook flick The Social Network, here's hoping this latest development turns at least one of these projects into an unexpected sequel to We Bought A Zoo.

Natalie Clayton
Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.