Mental health support and gaming culture don’t often share the same conversation. But during National Suicide Prevention Week (September 7-13, 2025), The Invaders helped bridge that gap with an unprecedented 24/7 streaming marathon that brought critical mental health resources directly to gaming communities.
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988 Lifeline) provides 24/7 support through a simple three-digit number. Making younger audiences aware of that, who spend significant time in gaming spaces, required a unique approach. The challenge was clear: how do you scale authentic mental health conversations within gaming communities?
Vibrant Emotional Health, the national administrator of the 988 Lifeline, needed to demonstrate that seeking help can be as natural in real life as it is in games by expanding on the effectiveness of gaming-native messaging. Building on previous successful 2024 and spring 2025 gaming campaigns to raise awareness of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which delivered record-breaking engagement with 18% of concurrent viewers clicking through to learn more about 988, The Invaders developed the Support Marathon concept.
This week-long streaming event featured over 30 content creators going live consecutively throughout National Suicide Prevention Week, playing special support challenges in a broad lineup of games. The approach was strategic: meet gamers in their native environment, and both directly and indirectly communicate why 988 is a critical mental health resource that Americans can reach 24/7 whenever they need mental health support.
The campaign centered on a powerful insight: gamers already understand support systems through cooperative gameplay, team-based challenges, and community assistance. The Support Marathon reinforced that seeking help in real life follows the same collaborative spirit that defines gaming culture.
Streamers participated in support challenges designed to highlight both in-game teamwork and real-world mental health resources. This approach avoided traditional PSA messaging in favor of authentic community engagement that felt natural to gaming audiences. By positioning mental health support as an extension of gaming’s collaborative culture rather than an external message, the campaign created genuine connection points between 988’s services and gaming community values.
For Vibrant Emotional Health, the campaign successfully continued introducing 988 to audiences who might never encounter traditional mental health messaging, creating awareness during a critical time when support visibility mattered most.
The Support Marathon ran September 7-13, 2025, featuring streamers such as JeromeASF, Joe_Bartolozzi, Broxah, and many others. Full schedules and resources were available at a special landing page: supportmarathon.org.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts or feelings of suicide, drug or alcohol use, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, mental illness, loneliness, trauma, stress, relationship troubles, or just needing to talk to someone, text, call, or chat 988 for judgment-free support 24/7.
