For over twenty years, Pride Month has been held in June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots in 1969. This vibrant celebration of the LGBTQ+ community aims to increase awareness, promote self-expression, advocate for equality and human rights, and continue to fight against discrimination. In recent times, Pride Month has become more widely celebrated, with a range of events hosted all over the globe, from colorful parades and festivals to educational workshops and political rallies.
With the vast majority of top-grossing iOS games using seasonal events to boost revenues and engagement, a significant number of mobile titles used Pride to launch their own inclusivity-boosting updates. This trend was particularly notable in 2024, with highlights such as Beatstar’s Love Spectrum battle pass, Marvel’s Strike Force’s Pride-themed scavenger hunt, and Call of Duty’s Pride flag weapon skins pack for Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone.
In this blog post, we examine how some of the biggest mobile titles celebrated Pride Month and discuss key considerations for launching your inclusivity-boosting live events.
Riot Games: League of Legends: Wild Rift
Riot is no stranger to Pride Month celebrations: The company has openly supported Pride since 2018, launching events across its entire games portfolio each year—including League of Legends, Wild Rift, Valorant, and even Teamfight Tactics.
Most of Riot’s Pride Month celebrations follow a similar template divided into two main halves. The first part typically includes the addition of various Pride-themed cosmetic items. Looking at this year’s event in League of Legends: Wild Rift, the headline new additions were the Love United Banner and Got Your Back Profile Icon, as well as a Rainbow Chest that allowed players to unlock items from past Pride events.
To unlock these items, players had to complete specific in-game missions. Many of these missions required players to complete missions with Pride-themed items equipped, which helped spread the event’s spirit throughout the game. It’s worth noting that you cannot purchase the items outright, likely because it may be considered controversial to generate profit from promoting diversity this way. That said, Riot once sold Pride Month items in the in-game store, although it made clear that proceeds went to LGBT charities.
The other half of Riot’s Pride Month celebrations occur outside its games. In previous years, this took the form of short stories being released that revealed the sexuality of prevalent League of Legends characters. However, this year, Riot took a slightly different approach by launching a hub on its website where players could submit content that promoted Pride (including streams, Discord channels, fan art, cosplay, etc) to be featured in an online gallery.
Space Ape: Beatstar
The rhythm game Beatstar took a rather multifaceted approach to Pride Month, launching a range of new events and reimagining existing activations.
The most significant addition was Love Spectrum, the latest incarnation of its monthly Battle Pass. Mechanically, this 39th version of the Battle Pass worked as it always has. There was a free and premium tier, with players progressing by acquiring Tour Points through regular gameplay. The main changes came in the form of rewards, which included a selection of new season songs from artists beloved by the LGBTQ+ community – including Kylie Minogue, Whitney Houston, Elton John, Cher, and many more – as well as four Pride-themed banners and a new emote.
Interestingly, Beatstar was one of the only mobile games that monetized its Pride Month events without indicating that it was donating proceeds to charity. Given the Tour Pass is a regular addition to the game and would have seen a new variation over June regardless, this likely didn’t raise too many eyebrows. Regardless, this is still a notable change-up from last year, when Space Ape openly stated that it would donate some of the profits from the Rainbow Rhythms Tour Pass to the charity Mermaids.
Other additions to the game for Pride Month included:
- A Pride-themed variation on Beatstar’s Beat Chaser Events, where players collected event points from songs in their collection and played for new seasonal cosmetics. The rewards for this latest variant included a new Pride avatar icon and a Pride 2024 Pop alternative track skin.
- For $3.99, the Happy Pride Month gacha offered up to three random songs from a 21-song offer pool, 100 premium currency gems, and 20 minutes of Unlimited Play (enables playing songs even after all of the rewards unlock slots are full). The 21 songs again highlighted LGBT artists, like Lady Gaga and Years and Years.
- A seasonal competition event, Pride Deluxe Dash Plus, saw players compete in a timed points competition in specific event songs. Winners unlocked Deluxe Cards (used to unlock higher-difficulty songs) and Pride Month-themed cosmetics.
- Players could claim a free Billie Eilish song, Bad Guy, between 26 and 30 June.
Comic-book Pride: Marvel Contest of Champions & Marvel Strike Force
Two popular mobile games based on the Marvel IP launched seasonal events themed around Pride Month. Starting with Marvel Strike Force, this turn-based RPG launched a three-day-long scavenger hunt called Coming Out!, where players needed to find and collect two unique pride items (the “Red Pride Stone” and “Yellow Pride Stone”) hidden within the game.
The event itself was scored, with players earning points after successfully finding the hidden items within a given time limit. Players received various rewards after successfully accruing enough points – including character shards, silver promotion credits, orb fragments, and crimson gear. While the event was arguably small-scale compared to some seasonal events, the game made it seem larger than it actually was by hiding the items within existing missions that featured LGBTQ+ Marvel characters.
The other title to launch a notable Pride-themed event was the Marvel Contest of Champions fighting game. Much like the event in Strike Force, the 30-day Pride is for Everyone event cleverly recycled existing content to pull together an engaging seasonal update.
In this event, players could earn progression points by using and/or obtaining one of the 19 existing LGBTQ+ playable Marvel characters within the game – such as Deadpool, Ice Man, Star Lord, and Wiccan. One of the key ways to earn progression points was by winning ranked matches while using one of these characters, which meant they became a trendy choice for players throughout Pride Month.
After reaching certain point thresholds, players unlocked various event-limited avatar frames and Icons themed around Pride Month, such as the Born This Way Title.
Wider Pride Month events on mobile (and beyond!)
While we felt these four takes at bringing Pride Month to mobile gaming fans were particularly notable, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention some of the many other titles that launched Pride-themed seasonal updates:
- Call of Duty (PC & Console) launched a pride-themed weapon skins pack for Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone that was free for all players throughout June.
- Subway Surfers partnered with Skate Like a Girl, introducing Riley, a new gender-fluid character, and custom skateboards featuring LGBTQIA+ community flags.
- In another comic book Pride Month update, Marvel Move got a new event featuring artwork from Marvel comics star Luciano Vecchio and indie writer Dr Nemo Martin.
- The official game based on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Superstar, added the show’s Season 14 winner Willow Pill for Pride Month.
- Highrise launched two charity bundles with an exclusive Giving Pride Profile Background and Loves Embrace Shirt. All profits were donated to a nonprofit supporting LGBTQIA+ youth.
- Overwatch 2 launched a new comic diving into the diverse backstory of one of its characters, Venture. Players could also unlock a new Venture skin, compete on a Pride-themed map variant where rainbow confetti fell from the sky, and catch streams from prominent LGBTQ+ creators.
Understanding what makes a great Pride event
It’s fair to say that many games are getting involved in Pride celebrations, but what’s perhaps less clear is judging how successful they’ve been. Usually, when reviewing seasonal events, determining which are the best is simply a case of looking at which titles saw significant performance spikes. However, that’s not possible as most items can be accessed for free or donate profits to good causes (which may also explain why many Pride events are built around existing content, which likely limits much of the development cost).
Instead, understanding what makes a great in-game Pride Event is less about number crunching and more about finding ways to celebrate inclusivity and enabling players to express themselves. By virtue of positive association, that will build trust with your player base and ultimately lead your game towards a brighter (and more diverse) future.
With all that in mind, based on the titles we’ve just discussed, here are a few key things to keep in mind if you’re considering launching your Pride-themed events in the future:
- Share the Love: Pride is about celebrating inclusivity rather than profiteering. If you are considering including IAP as part of a Pride Event, consider giving back to the community by donating your profits to good causes.
- Cosmetic Items Are an Easy Win: Many people like to be allowed to express their individuality in-game or to show their support for friends and family. Consider launching Pride-themed variants of fan-favorite items or, if applicable, offering additional customization options for your game’s LGBT characters.
- Look at Existing Content: Marvel’s Strike Force and Contest of Champions made their seasonal events appear much more significant than they actually were by focusing on content featuring popular LGBT Marvel characters. Consider how you can shine the spotlight on more diverse aspects of your own title.
- Pride Updates Can Go beyond Games Themselves: Many games and studios take their Pride celebrations beyond the confines of their titles, expanding the backstory of popular characters or launching initiatives that LGBT+ players can get involved with.
- Play it Safe: The LGBTQIA+ community has historically faced a lot of oppression, which continues in certain parts of the world today. Make sure that any updates you launch are respectful, positive, and aren’t insensitive in any way.
If you enjoyed reading this blog post, here are a few more you should check out:
