The live stream event Raising Millions for Charity
Z Event 2022 raised over €10 million
Z Event is a gaming charity project organised every year since 2016 by well-known gaming creators Adrien Nougaret and Alexandre Dachary. Named after his online pseudonym ZeratoR, Adrien alongside Alexandre organises the annual Twitch event to bring together French streamers and players whilst raising money for charity.
Streaming events are well-known and popular everywhere but what makes Z Event special is the unique format. The event takes place face-to-face with personalities invited by the pair and the public tune in remotely, watching live on Twitch via the player’s channels. The three-day marathon welcomes all types of streamers from around the world to participate in hilarious challenges, mentor new streamers and produce worthwhile content with the ultimate goal of connecting with each other and raising money.
Adrien and Alexandre, aka ZeratoR and Dach, unexpectedly started the Z Event in Adrien’s living room back in 2016 when they invited fifteen streamer friends over to join Belgian player Athene’s humanitarian battle call to raise funds in aid of Ethiopia’s famine crisis. That year, they raised €170,000.
The success of the first unofficial event prompted Adrien and Alexandre to improvise and organise another the year after. The team grew to include well-known influencers in gaming such as Doigby, Mister MV and Sardoche, and they raised €500,000 for the French Red Cross.
Since the first unexpected and unpretentious event, Z Event has grown and consistently broken its previous donation record. In 2021, for example, they raised a whopping €10 million for Action Against Hunger.
With the help of 57 gaming personalities and over 50 hours of streaming, this year’s Z Event in September raised donations across five charity organisations – Time for the Planet, Sea Shepherd, The Bird Protection, WWF and the Sea Cleaners.
It started with a fun-filled musical concert featuring musical ensemble French Fuse, beatboxing crew Berywam, rapper Soprano and many more. The opening night also saw participants share their donation goal cards all across Twitter using the hashtag #ZEvent2022.
Streamers use donation goal cards to set challenges to complete when a donation goal is reached. This is tracked on the participants’ Twitch channel as they stream online. Viewers are then able to see when a goal is reached and watch the streamer complete their challenge.
Streamer Ceb set a goal of coaching a viewer live on his channel when he reached a donation goal of $7,500, whilst another streamer pledged to send a picture of Lionel Messi to Cristiano Ronaldo Jr on Instagram when his donation goal reached €1,000,000.
Each participant created their own donation goal making it entertaining for viewers everywhere.
Z Event is also known to attract well-known celebrities. On the second day of this year’s event, French streamer Etoiles invited TV host, actor and director Alain Chabat to host Z Event’s quiz game “Questions for the streamers: Burger Edition”.
Over the three-day action-packed marathon event, viewers tuned in to watch their favourite streamers’ Twitch channels, donate and join in on the fun. This year, Z Event raised €10.1 million with a massive upsurge in viewership.
Every year, fans of the event look forward to joining the event, and it goes without saying that Z Event has become a staple in the French Twitch gaming community.
The event has not just become a big opportunity for streamers to grow their platform but to connect with their fans by showing their real and personable side – and fans can be active participants.
Twitch is a platform that enables communities and Adrien and Alexandre have taken the opportunity to not only shed light on world issues through charitable donations, but to also grow a community where people can reach out and learn from their mentors.
It has become evident that streamers love to challenge themselves and others and so we are likely to see more creator-led streaming events in the future.
Will you be tuning into the next Twitch live stream or, like Z Event fans, are you eagerly awaiting the 2023 event that is sure to be even bigger and better than the last one?
Check out the best of #ZEvent2022 on YouTube.