December is a time of festive spirit, that time of giving to others. And for a certain community, that means it’s also time for The Jingle Jam to begin. This year, The Jingle Jam had twelve charities that it would be helping, with most being new ones never having featured as part of the event. Across 14 days, the community came together to help raise over three million for those charities.
Live on Twitch on the Yogscast channel, the first of December saw the usual office cam antics and warmup by Yogscast members Tom and Ben before the official opening at 17:00 GMT with the stream all fans love. Jingle Cats. Simon and Lewis, the two founders of the Yogscast, watching fan submissions of Christmas-themed cat videos. The beginning of that stream marked the official opening of The Jingle Jam 2022, with fundraising starting from that moment on.
In just ten minutes, over a quarter of a million had already been raised, making it the most successful start in Jingle Jam history. But those numbers kept rising, until the unthinkable happened. On the first night, just before midnight, £1 million had been raised for those charities. The 2017 Jingle Jam – the most successful year the event has seen, wouldn’t reach that number for another eight hours. The first day is always where the most money is raised, but that doesn’t mean this year’s event didn’t smash other records.
After the first full 24 hours had passed, the numbers started tracking very close to that 2017 event, with this year taking awards for fastest to 1.5 million (with roughly two hours difference), 2 million (roughly three hours difference), and 3 million (by a massive eight hours). This year’s event might have missed out on fastest to 2.5 million (by roughly five hours), but there is no denying that throughout these 14 days, it has been a monumental success.
While events before 2020 would last for a full month of December, these previous few have seen just 14 days of fundraising take place. That doesn’t seem to have mattered much, as the final few days of these 14-day events have seen a surge of donations. Such is how this year saw over £400k raised during the last three days, with a great push to see last year’s total beaten before the midnight deadline. That happened with six hours to go, with the number continuing to climb until it had risen over £100,000 more than last year’s total to rest at a final amount of £3,448,752.
The community were all happy with that result, as well as the charities the money is for. Throughout the 14 days, fans have talked of their favourite moments, compilation channels have been grabbing the best of each day for easy viewability, and even fan art has been circulating by artists to highlight some great moments they have enjoyed. Such moments have been plenty, with a few guests making an appearance throughout the event.
RTGame returned for another year, appearing in YogTowers to host some Nintendo Switch Sports action, and then prove once again why they used to call him the Drift King back in college on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The Longest Johns returned for a second year of a singalong with various Yogs members joining the fun. The Minecraft Rats SMP group had a special Christmas episode they enacted live, with the Rust RPers also returning to bring a new storyline in their Jingle Jam adventures.
Of special note were Aardman model maker Jim Parkyn joining a few of the Yogs to give some teachings on how to make Gromit. Representatives from the charities would occasionally be dropping in, such as Dogs For Autism bringing along JJ the puppy, folks from Movember giving some haircuts to Yogscast members, and Wallace and Gromit appearing on the first day from The Grand Appeal to bring gifts to the Yogscast and celebrate the start of another Jingle Jam. A thank you goes out from me to those guests and the charities for making this a special event.
There has been a lot to enjoy about this Jingle Jam. So a huge thank you to the Yogscast for the time and dedication it must take to prepare for this momentous event each year. There’s a lot that goes into being the biggest gaming charity-based event, and each year your members always make it a successful one. Without you all putting everything into The Jingle Jam, there wouldn’t be such a huge community that surrounds it. Thank you once again, as well as to the fans for being great to be around during this time. Here’s to another great one next year.
Images Taken From:
Jingle Jam Hype Stream & BENGA … Jingle Jam 2022 | Yogscast Live
Switch Sports … Jingle Jam 2022 | Yogscast Live
Feed a Cow For Christmas … Jingle Jam 2022 | Yogscast Live
The Longest Johns | Jingle Jam 2022 | Yogscast Live
