About Desert Bus
Started in 2007 by internet sketch comedy group LoadingReadyRun, Desert Bus for Hope combines video games and tedium to benefit charity.
Desert Bus is the world's longest running internet-based fundraiser and has raised more than $10 million for Child's Play over its eighteen-year history.
What started as an impromptu event broadcast from a living room is now a professionally organized fundraiser; it takes more than 13 people to plan the event and another 55 dedicated volunteers to keep the whole thing running once it starts.
Our viewers direct the action, talking with us via live chat, challenging us to sing, dance and generally make fools of ourselves in front of thousands of viewers. The Desert Bus Craft-Along allows people from all over the world to help us raise money by donating incredible handmade art and goods for auction.
Desert Bus is a great example of what happens when a huge community of people from all over the world - organizers, volunteers, crafters, sponsors, and viewers - come together to achieve a common goal.
Desert Bus the Game
Desert Bus is a mini-game from the never-released Sega CD game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. Challenging the player to drive a listing, unreliable, virtual bus on an endless, eight-hour-long strip of highway between Tucson, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, it is widely regarded to be the worst video game ever made.
We play it for as long as donations come in. In order to keep things interesting for our viewers we have live and silent auctions, giveaways and contests, celebrity guests, and a lot of silliness.
Child's Play - What is Child's Play?
Child's Play is a registered charity dedicated to improving the lives of children undergoing treatment in the hospital with toys and games. The charity supports a network of over 180 hospitals worldwide.
Child's Play also supports domestic violence support facilities and aims to provide opportunities for positive engagement, distraction, and play for children in domestic violence shelters and advocacy centres.
Fundraising Totals
In 2007 we were mystified that we could raise over $22,000 in a week. Every year since, we grow more and more dumbfounded by your generosity.
Desert Bus 2007:
$22,805.00
Desert Bus 2008:
$70,423.79
Desert Bus 2009:
$140,449.68
Desert Bus 2010:
$209,400.82
Desert Bus 2011:
$383,125.10
Desert Bus 2012:
$443,630.00
Desert Bus 2013:
$523,520.00
Desert Bus 2014:
$643,242.58
Desert Bus 2015:
$683,720.00
Desert Bus 2016:
$695,242.57
Desert Bus 2017:
$655,402.56
Desert Bus 2018:
$731,910.37
Desert Bus 2019:
$865,015.00
Desert Bus 2020:
$1,052,902.40
Desert Bus 2021:
$1,223,108.83
Desert Bus 2022:
$1,138,674.80
Desert Bus 2023:
$1,193,560.00
Desert Bus 2024:
$1,252,690.69
Desert Bus 2025:
$1,059,553.89
Desert Bus 2026:
$0.00
Total Raised:
$12,988,378.08
In September 2020 we ran Rustproof Bee Shed, raising $11,759.90 for Trans Lifeline.
In May 2025 we ran DB Express 2025, raising CAD$205,069.69 for BC Cancer Foundation.
How donation/hours work
We here at Desert Bus are really willing to suffer for the children. Rather than set an arbitrary cut-off point for our fundraiser, the length of the Desert Bus marathon is solely determined by the donations we receive, which means the more you donate, the longer we play.
However, because it gets harder and harder to keep playing as the marathon goes on, the donations required to add another hour go up by 7% for every additional hour.
This means first hour costs $1.00, but the second hour costs $1.07. By the time we reach the 10th hour of busing, it costs $1.84 and we've made $13.82 in total donations. Therefore the first few days of the event are quite cheap, but by the end of the week it costs several thousand dollars to keep the team going for another hour.
The donation total in the header updates instantly. In order to figure out how long we must play, we use a custom-built donation tracking system, but all your money is going directly to Child's Play.
If you're interested in how much it would take us to keep going for 2 weeks, here's how the math breaks down:
$10.26 = 8 Hours (0.33 Days)
$102.07 = 31 Hours (1.29 Days)
$1,070.80 = 64 Hours (2.67 Days)
$10,104.50 = 97 Hours (4.04 Days)
$100,952.11 = 131 Hours (5.46 Days)
$1,007,439.84 = 165 Hours (6.88 Days)
$10,052,477.33 = 199 Hours (8.29 Days)
$100,304,888.34 = 233 Hours (9.71 Days)
$1,000,853,692.41 = 267 Hours (11.13 Days)
$10,685,696,139.43 = 302 Hours (12.58 Days)
$106,623,089,429.58 = 336 Hours (14 Days)