Bethesda Softworks and its parent company, ZeniMax Media, will donate $1 million to COVID-19 relief efforts. The company plans to split the funds among several local and international organizations on the front lines.

Bethesda says that $500,000 will go to Direct Relief, an organization that works in the US and abroad to support front-line medical workers. Direct Relief is currently working to “get protective gear and critical care medications to as many health workers as possible.”

Another $250,000 will go to UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations that brings aid to children and families worldwide. UNICEF is on the ground in more than 190 countries to ensure families have the supplies they need to stay safe and to keep children learning remotely while they’re out of school.

Finally, Bethesda will donate $250,000 to local COVID-19 relief efforts in the cities where Bethesda has offices. The company said that the recipients of these funds will be “chosen by our individual studios and international offices. This way we can support worthy charities fighting COVID-19 in our local communities across the world.”

In its statement, Bethesda announced it has planned to host streams as part of its #BethesdaAtHome campaign to raise additional funds for relief efforts.

In previous posts, we have written about how the gaming industry has come together to raise money for pandemic relief. For example, the recent stream “Corona Relief Done Quick” raised over $400,000 over the course of a weekend for Direct Relief. In that stream, speedrunners ran through more than 100 games as part of the fundraising event. A recent “Humble Bundle” event raised more than $6.5 million for charity. In another example, gaming chair manufacturer Secretlab donated 50,000 masks to frontline medical workers, and Riot Games pledged to donate $800,000 to help with California’s pandemic relief.

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