Last weekend, the annual “Friendly Fire” charity event took place on Twitch. The eleventh edition was live streamed for 12 hours by Gronkh, PietSmiet, and Co., breaking a record in the process.
What kind of event was it? From December 6 to 7, 2025, Friendly Fire 11 took place. This charity event, which has been running for 11 years, collects donations for a good cause every December through a large live stream. It is hosted by content creators Gronkh and PietSmiet, with fisHC0p, DerHeider, PhunkRoyal, MrMoregame, and Pandorya joining in.
While the donation amount does not reach a new high every year, the previous record for direct donations was broken this time.
Gronkh and PietSmiet take turns hosting the event on their respective Twitch channels. You can learn more about Gronkh here:
Direct donations hit a new record
What record was broken? Just before the end of the live stream on Twitch, the content creators broke their record for direct donations thanks to the viewers’ contributions. This record was previously set in 2021 and has now been surpassed. The new record currently stands at €1,329,222.55, donated by the viewers as of December 8 at 10:00 AM.
In addition to that, there were sales of merchandise items and donations from sponsors, bringing the total donation amount to a provisional result of €1.75 million. Although the live stream has already ended, donations can still be made until December 12, 2025, on betterplace.org, and the merchandise will still be available until then. The final total donation amount is usually announced only after several months when all processes are completed.
The record for direct donations was also broken thanks to the contributions from the participants, who made additional donations just before the end.
What was there to see? As every year, the content creators engaged in a variety of activities. There was again a colorful mix of board games, challenges, penalties for donation goals, and advertisement blocks for sponsors of the event.
A highlight of the live stream was the visit from “Santa Claus,” who distributed gifts to the participants. There were also some fun gifts like vegetables for those who were not so well-behaved. Another highlight was the annual cake, contributed and sponsored by KittyCatCakes. It was designed to look like a card from Anno 117, as the game is this year’s main sponsor of the event. Over the course of the evening, the cake card was covered by a volcanic eruption.
The criticism from last year was also addressed. In the previous edition, there was food waste in a collaboration (via Ingame.de). This time, they replaced the segment with a restaurant run by Peter and Christian from PietSmiet. They had to prepare pizzas for the crew of Friendly Fire, which resembles a typical restaurant game that the content creators would probably otherwise play for a video.
You can catch the whole live stream here:
Who receives the donations? All donations collected during, before, and after the live stream as part of Friendly Fire 11 are for a good cause. This year, the organizers have again selected 8 associations and organizations to which the donations will go:
- Kindernothilfe e.V. for child protection in sports
- German Society for ME/CFS e.V., which advocates for the rights and needs of those affected by ME/CFS
- Animal Welfare Association Goslar and Surroundings e.V. wishes to use the funds to cover veterinary costs for stray cats
- Queermed Germany, which aims to address discrimination experiences in healthcare
- JUUUPORT e.V. helps young people with issues like cyberbullying, sextortion, cybergrooming, media addiction, fake news, or scams
- Leave No One Behind supports people on the run in over 200 local projects
- Pinkstinks Germany e.V., which educates about sexism, discrimination, and antifeminism, and promotes equal opportunities
As in previous years, donations were also collected for the so-called Friendly Fire Emergency Fund. The event’s own donation fund always reserves a portion of the donations collected to respond quickly and unbureaucratically to crises as they arise. According to the donation page on betterplace.org of Friendly Fire, assistance has been provided directly 20 times in the past. This includes when President Trump suspended humanitarian aid.
Although the donation live stream could not break its all-time record this year, the fans donated more than in previous years. You can see how the record was broken last year and the emotional moment when the participants learned about it here: Gronkh and PietSmiet raised over 2 million euros for a good cause on Twitch, creating an emotional moment
