Sony donates $25,000 to charity thanks to Stray

PS Plus game Stray is actually doing more than being an adorable little cat game, it's also helping to bring money in for some cat shelters around the world. This means our real-life fur babies can have a better quality of living.

Update: The PS Plus sensation Stray is still helping to raise money to help cats in need — all animals in fact. Celebrating the physical release of Stray, Sony asked fans to send in their videos of their pets reacting to Stray — a social media craze we were all too familiar with — before making an announcement about a donation for charity.

Stray is still raising money for animals in need!

Stray raises $25,000 for animals in need thanks to Sony

In a video posted to PlayStation's official YouTube channel, we see a variety of clips showcasing various cats and dogs reacting to our adorable little cat friend as he goes about his adventures in this dystopian world. The video celebrates Stray's physical PS5 release — with physical PS4 versions to launch at a later date. At the end of the celebratory video, Sony left us with a nice little surprise.

"Sony Interactive Entertainment is extending the love shared for Stray to real-life animals, with a $25,000 donation to The American Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals." The video then ends with a link to where you can learn more about the charity and what they do as a whole.

What do you make of this wholesome video? We at TT find the whole thing heartwarming. Have you guys played Stray yet? Picked up the physical version? Let us know in the comments down below!

Original Story: Twitch streamers are currently using the PS Plus game Stray to raise money for cat shelters around the world. It would appear Stray is doing far more for the world than just making cat lovers fall head over heels with this adorable little feline. Annapurna Interactive even contributed to helping some of these cat shelters out when Stray initially landed on PS4, PS5 consoles.

PS Plus game Stray is helping to raise money for cat shelters!

Twitch streamers are raising money for cat shelters thanks to PS Plus game Stray

As reported by The Washington Post, Stray is currently helping out our real-life felines, by allowing gamers to stream fundraising events whilst they play this cute little game. The money is being raised for various cat shelters and other cat-based charities. Annapurna also promoted Stray by offering two cat rescue and adoption agencies copies of the game to raffle off in the hopes of bringing some positive attention to all parties involved.

North Shore Animal League America, recently gained an $800 donation thanks to a gamer who channelled a host of viewers to donate to the goal over on Tiltify, completely obliterating the original goal of just $200. Tiltify allows nonprofits to receive donations from video streams. Which could be very useful for cat shelters thanks to Stray.

Another streamer called Treyday1014 was reached out to by marketing specialist Brendan Gepson, who works for the Nebraska Humane Society. Trey was asked to run a charity live stream on Twitch where he would try and raise $200 for the Society by playing Stray. By the end of the four-and-a-half-hour stream, donations totalled up to $1,500. Smashing the original goal out of the park.

Commenting on the success of the Twitch stream, Trey said: "This has opened my eyes to being able to use this platform for a lot more good than just playing video games."

Stray is just so darn cute

According to Twitch, Stray was the fourth most watched and broadcast game on the day it launched. This is a phenomenal success for a small little indie game that pounced onto PS Plus and joined the evergrowing PlayStation Plus games list. Now the Stray devs can only hope that this wonderful outcome will continue to benefit the poor kitties around the world that need our help.

Stray producer, Swann Martin-Raget, had this to say on the matter: "I certainly hope that maybe some people will be inspired to help actual strays in real life — knowing that having an animal and a companion is a responsibility."

Annapurna Interactive’s marketing director, Jeff Legaspi, said they wanted to be: "positively impactful and hopefully bring more awareness to adopting and not shopping for a new pet."

Stray is saving real life kitties

Gepson was approached by Annapurna to partner up ahead of Stray which launched back in July. Gepson says they jumped at the opportunity to work with Annapurna.

Expanding a little further Gepson added: "The whole game and the whole culture around the game, it’s all about a love of cats. It meshed really well with the shelter and our mission. It was really mutually beneficial, they got some really good PR out of it and we got a whole new donor base out of it."

The shelter was given four copies of Stray to give away and asked for $5 donations from anyone who wanted to be entered into the raffle. Gepson said that in just one week they had made $7,000, with the vast majority of the donors being completely new to them, around 550 to be exact. Which is an exceptional achievement.

People just can't get enough of Stray

It's so exciting to see so much good coming from such an incredible game like Stray. The fact that people are using the game to raise money for cats in desperate need is such a heartwarming sight. It almost brings a little tear to my eye. How do you feel about all this Stray goodness? Are you loving the Stray social media craze? Found anymore Stray easter eggs? How are those Stray trophies coming along? Let me know in the comments below!

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Written by Sean Lawson

Sean is a Staff Writer with a focus on the geekiest Sony news. He writes stories about unobtainable PlayStation trophies, the best PS Plus games, as well as RPGs and Fighting games. He is also excited for Tekken 8, Dragon Age Dreadwolf, Baldur's Gate 3, and Dragon's Dogma 2 to launch on PS5. Sean’s favourite games include Mass Effect, Tomb Raider, Tekken, and Persona.