More than £100,000 raised by Jagex for GameBlast16

At the end of last week we wrote about Jagex taking part in GameBlast16, the UK's biggest charity gaming marathon with the aim of raising money for Special Effect a charity that helps people with disability to game.

The livestream that began at February 26, at 12 noon GMT lasted the full 24 hours managed to raise more than £100,000, smashed the amount they raised last year. The figure was generated through a combination of real world donations and a community effort in game known as the Well of Goodwill. The stream saw 400,000 unique viewers over the 24 hours and a peak of 19,000 unique viewers. Alongside the livestream the team also hosted a charity auction in which they auctioned off exclusive collectables and pieces of tech.

"What an achievement! Our fantastic community continued to donate to the Well of Goodwill all weekend, which has topped up our total to over an incredible £100,000 for SpecialEffect. This is our most successful 24-hour live-stream for a GameBlast fundraiser, with more than three times the amount raised than last year. It is testament to both the RuneScape development teams, our community and their collective desire to support a wonderful charity." - Neil McClarty, commercial director, RuneScape

"WOW! What an incredible total - this has smashed Jagex's previous GameBlast 24-hour stream totals and is something of a shock. A massive thank you to the truly remarkable team who managed the marathon and the amazingly generous RuneScape community. Amazing!" - Mick Donegan, founder and director of SpecialEffect

Special Effect is a charity helping people with various disablities enjoy games, and you can look forward to a feature on the charity this Friday, right here on Gamereactor.

In total GameBlast16 raised more than £170,000 and the dates for GameBlast17 have just been announced as 24-26 February 2017.