As one of 2020’s most popular games, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has generated numerous requests to add in-game skins to promote various consumer and esports brands. Companies use these in-game costumes to advertise to the millions of players in-game and on watching on Twitch. 

Rather than selling skins as an in-game promotional tool to commercial companies, Fall Guys developer Mediatonic decided to auction the opportunity, with the proceeds going to a nonprofit organization. Whichever brand pledged the most to UK-based nonprofit SpecialEffect would win the right to add an in-game skin. SpecialEffect works to make gaming accessible for those with disabilities by building unique, customizable hardware. The organization said it was facing budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the end, game streamers Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and Tyler “Ninja” Blevins partnered with G2 Esports and Aim Labs, an AI game training platform, to fund a $1 million bid. In return, Mediatonic said it would permit each party to submit a skin for use in-game. 

SpecialEffect thanked everyone on Twitter, saying: “Unbelievable! THANK YOU to the winners @aimlab , @G2esports , @MrBeastYT , @Ninja & everyone who bid, and to @FallGuysGame for making it all possible. Your generosity will enable us to continue making gaming dreams come true for people with physical disabilities around the world!” 

Fall Guys is a Mario Party-style battle royale game. 60 players compete in a series of silly party games over the course of six rounds. One of the hottest games of the summer, Fall Guys has sold 7 million units on Steam and quickly became the top-downloaded Playstation Plus game of all time on the PS4. At one point, Fall Guys was the top-watched game on Twitch, with an average of 155,000 viewers on the platform over the last month. It continues to dominate gaming conversations on social media.

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