Games are Make-A-Wish’s fastest-growing wish category, but the industry has "taken a backseat" since the pandemic

• The "vast majority" of Wish children want a mobile device to play games on.
• Mobile teams tend to have the advantage in chairty initiatives, "very used to producing new content".

"For so many of our kids, gaming can mean a PC or a PS5, or a lot of Switch 2 wishes coming in right now. But for the vast majority of our kids, it's ‘I want a mobile device so I can play games’," says Make-A-Wish International charitable gaming and creators community manager April Stallings.

"Depending on the part of the world we're talking about, that is the dominant form of gaming, so I would love to see more interaction and more activity from the mobile side of the games industry."

We speak with Stallings as Make-A-Wish calls the games industry to action, hoping to see the sector become more aware and involved with granting children’s wishes.

She believes mindfulness around charity work has "taken a backseat more since the pandemic", but doesn’t accuse the games industry of "failing" children - well aware of widespread layoffs and current challenges taking necessary priority for businesses at present.

"The industry is very fluid right now, but to me that’s the perfect time to lean into your values and declare who you are, and really focus on what your games are doing for the world," she suggests.

"That’s the real joy of the games industry, right? The storytelling and the impact on the imaginations of kids around the world and adults around the world."

Challenges and opportunities

Make-A-Wish’s core mission is to grant wishes to children with critical illnesses. The charity operates in 43 countries, and has found a "definite" shift with Gen Z and Gen Alpha towards games-related wishes.

This has only ramped up since the start of the pandemic, with wishes revolving around games becoming the fastest-growing wish category worldwide over the past half-decade.

Naturally, this means Make-A-Wish is paying close attention to the games industry and hopes to engage with the sector more to grant those children’s wishes.

"I would ideally love to see this global network of people who work in the sector who are giving financially, who are opening their doors whenever Wish children have unique requests - which they always do - and are just generally very supportive," says Stallings.

Currently, however, there are often difficulties in finding the right people to discuss charity initiatives with, usually "hidden" somewhere in PR or marketing. The level of support from games companies also varies by country, and Triple-A studios have more layers of complexity that aren’t present within indie studios.

"I think indie studios are absolutely the heart of gaming right now, and I think they're a little more nimble, more able to make decisions and get involved with things, but also they’re a little more limited in their resources and what they can do."

We ask about the types of games Make-A-Wish has worked with thus far, and Stallings names League of Legends, World of Warcraft and HappyColor, among various others.

She notes the popularity of skins in partnerships like these, as well as loot boxes and community challenges, the latter two being especially effective on mobile.

One child got to make a new skin for his favourite character in League of Legends through Make-A-Wish, for example, raising over $6 million for non-profits globally. Meanwhile, companies like Arrowhead Studios have done virtual studio tours when a child can’t travel but wants to meet developers.

But Stallings doesn’t want to limit opportunities to what’s worked before, and encourages developers to get creative with partnership ideas.

"I think what's really interesting about the games industry is you don't necessarily have to get stuck on one particular model and try to replicate it. Games are so wide and varied, and what they do is so wide and varied," Stallings explains.

"I don’t want to exclude out-of-the-box thinking."

Make-A-Wish has newly launched the Infinite Wishes initiative to expand its ties to the games industry, offering tiered partnerships and non-financial options so that companies of any size can get involved and offer support - whether that’s a livestream, donating to fund wishes, or any other ideas. Developers are encouraged to get creative.

Make-A-Wish makes decisions on games to work with on a case-by-case basis, and while some genres are naturally more "brand-friendly" than others, Stallings doesn’t feel any genre should be leading the way or excluded.

"Some people look at us and our mission and think, ‘I’m a first-person shooter game, I can’t be involved’. That’s not true at all."

"Pushing the envelope"

"Who are the celebrities now? Content creators, game devs, the CEOs of games companies," Stallings says.

And with this newfound popularity - and responsibility - she suggests developers should lean into it, building a structure and organising companies in a way that enables collaborations with charities.

Stallings would like to see more "from all platforms equally", but she notes that mobile has some major advantages in actualising charity initiatives, with shorter runways to releasing updates.

"For mobile teams, they are very used to producing new content and new innovative things in their games and pushing the envelope on what their players will engage with," she says.

"We've had several successful concepts around issuing a challenge to the community, having them meet certain milestones in-game, and then that triggers a donation on the part of the company. It’s also a really good strategy for user acquisition, user retention, and keeps people playing longer."

To make contact with more studios and spread the word about Infinite Wishes, Stallings is at Gamescom 2025 this week. It’s her second time at the industry event, after first attending in 2024, and she hopes this year will lead to new connections.

"There has already been some wonderful support from the games industry," she reflects. "At Gamescom, I’m going to connect with people. I’m going to try to power through as many mixers as I can. That’s my goal."

For more information on Gamescom mixers, we compiled the ultimate Gamescom Party Guide to highlight all the hottest networking opportunities.