Razor brand Schick Xtreme has entered the world of video game development, all in the name of fighting cancer. Along with co-designer Playcrafting, Schick Xtreme has produced the new mobile game Shave The Day. Players will shave heads and receive Bald Bucks, which will be turned into donations of up to $250,000 for St. Baldrick’s Foundation to raise money for Childhood Cancers Research.
In light of the worldwide quarantines due to COVID-19, Schick Xtreme and Baldrick’s Foundation are using the virtual experience of the game to reinvent the very real-life experience of their annual head-shaving fundraisers.
In Shave The Day, the player is the bald superhero XtremeMan. The objective is to maneuver XtremeMan on his Xtreme razor as he evades obstacles to shave heads and collect Bald Bucks. After the game is over, Schick Xtreme will use the Bald Bucks to make an actual donation to St. Baldrick’s Foundation to help support childhood cancer research. When the donation goal of $250,000 is finally reached, players can continue to play and donate money in the game.
Twitch streamers Aydan + NMPLOL are also collaborating with Schick Xtreme to play Shave The Day with their own individual donation goals, which means they will have to shave their heads on livestream once their donation goals have been achieved.
The partnership with Twitch is a great move, as the recent increase in livestream viewers will likely garner more donations for the event. More people are indoors as a result of the lockdowns, causing the popularity of livestreamed programs to go up. The weekend of March 14 had a global increase in streaming audiences from the previous weekend, with Twitch’s viewership going up 10% and YouTube Gaming’s by 15%. A new record was also set in March with over 1.2 billion hours marking a 24% growth from the previous month. It was not until 2020 that Twitch hit the 1 billion mark.
It is always uplifting to see video games used in the service of a greater cause. Especially mobile gaming, which finds many of its players sinking money into gacha games for very little reward. In this instance, Shave The Day’s gaming mechanic has a meaningful use, and gamers can finally put their coins toward a worthy cause.
Shave The Day will be available to download for free in the App Store or Google Play Store on May 19. The game is also available to download directly from ShaveTheDay.com