160,000+ gamers, 100,000 matches and 35 million people watching its elite action: $10million charity esports festival Gamers Without Borders smashes its own halfway record!

The Saudi Esports Federation’s COVID-19 fundraiser Gamers Without Borders has continued to reach and break new milestones for charity gaming after uniting more than 160,000 global gamers online in just four weeks.

Since getting underway on June 7, the $10million gaming festival has managed to reaffirm its position as the world’s biggest charity esports event by welcoming gamers from 77 countries to more than 100,000 online matches by only its halfway point – an increase of more than 30,000 gamers on the same stage in 2020’s debut event.

In its elite series – where the biggest esports athletes and franchises in the world go head-to-head for a share of the charity prize-fund – more than $4million has already been donated to the likes of UNICEF, Gavi and Direct Relief to support vaccine distribution in the world’s most vulnerable nations, following epic tournaments on titles including EA SPORTS™ FIFA 21, Fortnite and GS:GO – with another $6million to go.

Those events have drawn more than 35 million online streams, with an enormous global audience tuning in for in excess of 5.6 million hours so far.

Megastar names & a social media smash-hit

Gamers Without Borders’ elite series tournaments have also attracted a plethora of A-list superstars to its live stream broadcast from its spell-binding virtual studio, including Ronaldinho, Sergio Ramos, Anthony Joshua, Jesse Lingard, Chance The Rapper and Dele Alli.

That has helped the esports festival to a whopping 178 million views on its social content, driving more than 1.7 million gamers to its website as the event grows in almost every way upon its debut last year.

His Royal Highness Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan, chairman of organizers the Saudi Esports Federation, said: “Within a week of our debut Gamers Without Borders back in 2020, we could already see the impact that the festival had. Gamers united in support of those suffering most and those on the frontline in the fight against COVID-19.

“That global battle continues, with gamers across the world doing their part. The proof of that is in the phenomenal number of gamers already seen getting involved in this year’s Gamers Without Borders, where our mission is to leave no one behind and do what we can to get much-needed COVID-19 vaccines distributed in the world’s most vulnerable nations.

“Both our elite series and community tournaments have been at the heart of that, where we have seen some incredible action over the last four-and-a-half weeks. I look forward to seeing what the remainder of this year’s Gamers Without Borders will bring to gamers in every corner of the globe.”

Elite and community tournaments unite the gaming world

Gamers Without Borders community tournaments are an online battleground for amateur gamers of all abilities, where prizes are up for grabs every single day. To date, they have seen 161,396 people register, and 153,125 gamers play 90,440 matches on titles including EA SPORTS™ FIFA 21, Call of Duty, Fortnite and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege.

Those tournaments have comprised more than 750 marathon tournaments, from which there have been winners from 38 different countries, all together winning prizes worth almost $220,000.

Across Gamers Without Borders’ international elite series, 100+ of the world’s best esports teams have already gone head-to-head, drawing 35,790,224 stream views online.

Learning initiatives inspire next gen gamers

As well as its playing and watching platforms, Gamers Without Borders has also been running a free and unrivalled series of learning initiatives aimed at inspiring the next generation of game designers, through its learning hub.

To date, 4٬604 people have taken part in its ‘Make It & Play It’ program, with 1,149,400 views of its catalogue of digital webinars to date.

Get involved

With so much action and learning still to come, there has never been a better time to get involved in Gamers Without Borders. Gamers of all abilities can register to play as part of the event by visiting www.gamerswithoutborders.com, where streaming information for all the event’s live elite series action can be found too.

The festival is also open to donations, all of which will go directly to humanitarian organisations supporting COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the world’s most vulnerable nations: UNICEF, Gavi, Direct Relief, the International Medical Corps and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre.