Sky: Children of the Light players raise over 1 million USD for Doctors Without Borders' COVID-19 response

thatgamecompany has today announced that it's raised over $1 million to support Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières' COVID-19 response, and it's all thanks to Sky: Children of the Light's player community.

The developer launched its in-game Days of Healing campaign earlier this year, allowing players to purchase a special flower accessory. Once the campaign had wrapped up four weeks later, the community had raised a grand total of $1,027,340. 100% of the net proceeds were then donated to MSF.

The campaign also aimed to draw attention to the video game industry's popular #PlayApartTogether movement, which encouraged players to stay safe, socially distance, and remain socially active online during the ongoing pandemic.

"Doctors Without Borders is extremely grateful for the generous support of thatgamecompany and the Sky community," said Avril Benoît, the organisation's US Executive Director. "As we face an unprecedented global health crisis, we rely on this generosity to respond to this emergency and to continue providing medical care in over 70 countries."

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"We are so overwhelmed by the generosity of Sky's global community," added Jenova Chen, thatgamecompany's co-Founder and Creative Director. "Originally, we asked how could our studio help during the pandemic? We couldn't have predicted the altruistic behaviours in-game would translate to real life action and giving to frontline workers. Our team is so moved by the word-of-mouth and support Sky has inspired during this pandemic."

And this is only the most recent charity campaign held within Sky, with the earlier Days of Nature event promoting environmental themes for Earth Day. Players had the option to purchase an in-game cape, and for every cape bought, thatgamecompany planted a tree. 40,576 trees were planted in total across the Australian and Amazonian forests.

Dann reviewed Sky back at launch last year, calling it "a beautiful experience which delivers much more than a standard 3D platformer through a fully realised multiplayer system." You can check out the review in video form above.

Sky: Children of the Light is available for download now from over on the App Store and Google Play.