Desert Bus for Hope is an annual charity event in Victoria, British Columbia. Each year, the Canadian fundraiser donates its proceeds to Child’s Play, a well-known charity that specializes in toy and game donations to children’s hospitals all over the world. The official Child’s Play website currently acknowledges Desert Bus for Hope as its only sponsor with a so-called “Driver Status,” listing it above heavyweight contributors such as Google, Microsoft, and even the famous Humble Bundle.
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As was the case with the past iterations of Desert Bus for Hope, this year’s event once again revolved around numerous gamers braving the challenges of the eponymous Desert Bus mini-game from Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors. This never-released exclusive for the Sega CD retro console was scrapped in the mid-90s but survived through the review copies sent to journalists, later becoming infamous in large part due to how terrible the Desert Bus segment was. The Desert Bus for Hope 2022 participants were once again playing this mini-game live on stream for as long as the donations kept flowing in, with the broadcast ultimately running for 166 hours, just two hours shy of seven days, raising $1,134,580.73 in the process.
According to the official Child’s Play website, the organization has made over $55 million in charitable donations to date. Meaning that this latest iteration of Desert Bus for Hope managed to raise 2% of what its beneficiary donated in two decades, all in under a week. Looking at lifetime contributions, the Canadian fundraiser now accounts for almost one-fifth of Child’s Play total donation pool, thus clearly justifying its exclusive sponsor status. Industry watcher data suggests that Child’s Play historically maintained a program expense ratio of around 85%, meaning that the vast majority of all the money it ever raised—both directly and through third-party initiatives like this month’s Humble Choice Games—was used directly toward charitable donations.
The consistent success of Desert Bus for Hope isn’t the only way in which Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors has embedded itself in the gaming zeitgeist over the years. Namely, the iconic magician duo was previously featured in Borderlands 3 as “Pain and Terror,” whereas it has already been confirmed that the upcoming Borderlands movie will also feature a cameo from Penn Jillette.
This latest example of the global gaming community’s philanthropic endeavors comes just days after a Minecraft charity stream hit its funding target before it even started. It will be exciting what future fundraisers will be able to achieve.
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