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Overwatch’s limited-edition charity skin raised $12.7 million for BCRF in 2018—and is relaunching this month to fund more lifesaving research
Players tweeted, DM’d, and petitioned, and it’s finally happening: BCRF and Overwatch® 2 are teaming up to bring back Pink Mercy. Overwatch 2’s “Mercy for a Cause” campaign launching on June 25 will fund lifesaving breast cancer research through sales of two limited-edition skins (alternate versions of a character’s outfit, gear, or appearance), including the original Pink Mercy.
“Blizzard is thrilled to be working alongside BCRF once again, bringing attention and funding to such an important cause,” said Johanna Faries, the president of Blizzard Entertainment. “Overwatch recently crossed the 100 million lifetime player milestone, and we hope that our amazing community will once again rally to help support the critical work of BCRF, all while showcasing these beautiful skins in-game.”
In 2018, Overwatch and BCRF launched the first charity partnership in Overwatch history. The two-week campaign was a massive hit with players, whose support and enthusiasm enabled a $12.7 million donation to BCRF—the single-largest donation to the Foundation at the time.
“Overwatch’s innovation in the gaming industry mirrors the innovation BCRF is spurring in research to eradicate breast cancer,” said BCRF President and CEO Donna McKay. “We are at a critical inflection point as incidence of breast cancer continues to rise, and there is still more work to be done. We are thrilled to renew this collaboration to see how we can continue driving change, and saving lives, together.”
Between June 25 and July 8, Overwatch 2 players can purchase the original Pink Mercy ($14.99) and a new Rose Gold Mercy Bundle ($19.99). One hundred percent of the purchase prices of these products, excluding any applicable platform fees and taxes, will be donated to BCRF.
In 2018, Blizzard and Overwatch’s millions of players helped fuel research that touched the entire spectrum of the disease. In addition to supporting new clinical trials and BCRF research grants across BCRF’s areas of focus, this gift launched BCRF’s Precision Prevention Initiative (PPI), which brings precision medicine to breast cancer prevention by innovating breast cancer risk assessment and detection and developing early interventions for the disease that go beyond surgery.
With this incredible support, researchers funded by PPI were able to:
- Develop advanced AI methods to analyze mammogram images and support more accurate breast cancer risk assessment
- Identify drugs that could potentially delay tumor formation
- Create a tool that predicts the risk that a patient’s ductal carcinoma in situ (also known as DCIS or stage 0 breast cancer because it’s not invasive) will progress to full-blown invasive breast cancer
- Test models that can better predict how triple-negative breast cancer—one of the most aggressive forms—will develop
This 2024 campaign could not be coming at a more important time in breast cancer. While we’ve made incredible progress in treatment, diagnoses are on the rise, devastating disparities persist, and metastatic breast cancer remains incurable. The only way to reduce the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer is to prevent the disease from ever taking root in the first place.
“If we can determine which patients are at highest risk, we can develop interventions tailored to that patient—so that we can stop breast cancer before it strikes,” said BCRF Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Dorraya El-Ashry. “The support from Overwatch helped us launch this vision, and now the 2024 Overwatch 2 campaign will help us propel this work even further.”
Learn more about Blizzard and BCRF’s 2024 partnership here and find BCRF streaming resources here.