ZEvent 2026: 32.9 million and a farewell that shattered everything

€32.9 million: the record no one had quantified

The counter ended at €32,891,874. Three days live, 22 associations, a shattered record. The 2025 edition had set the bar around €16.6 million: this one nearly doubled it, with a 97% increase in one year.

The detail is even more telling than the total. 1.7 million donations were recorded, with an average donation of a few tens of euros. This record was not made by philanthropists, it was made by a community giving 10 or 20 euros at a time.

Put the trajectory in context. In 2016, the first edition was held in ZeratoR's living room and raised €170,770. In 2021, ZEvent crossed 10 million. Ten years later, the event raises 192 times its initial collection in a single weekend.

On the audience side, the counters followed. Peak at 1.3 million simultaneous viewers, second best score in ZEvent history behind 2021, and an absolute record of 26.18 million hours watched on 354 active channels, according to Streams Charts.

The opening concert: 11,000 people and an emergency replacement

It all starts on Thursday evening. The Sud de France Arena fills its 11,000 seats for more than four hours of show. On the program: Gazo, Bigflo & Oli, Yamê and L'Orchestre Curieux led by Marianne, aka LittleBigWhale, and PV Nova.

The line-up changed at the last minute. GIMS, announced as headliner, canceled for health reasons. Yamê took over the slot with a full set, opened with piano-voice, and Bigflo & Oli extended theirs to fill the gap.

At Project X Paris, we especially remember what the stage triggered. Bigflo & Oli announce €100,000 live. GIMS, absent, sends €50,000 and a record. Even before the marathon launch, Friday at 6pm, the pot already shows more than €530,000.

From Zidane to Messi, the year the raffles took everything

The mechanism of this edition boils down to one word: raffle. One euro donated, one ticket, and relics that no one had ever put up for grabs at this level. Domingo sets the absolute record with a replica of the jersey from Zinédine Zidane's last match at Real, signed "Warmly, for the 10th ZEvent": more than €1.14 million on a single lot.

His Legends Raffle lined up the rest of the sports pantheon. Signed jersey of Victor Wembanyama, Charles Leclerc's racing suit, final swimwear of Léon Marchand, Patriots helmet signed by Tom Brady, PSG jersey signed by the entire squad, saber helmet of Olympic champion Manon Apithy-Brunet.

At Mastu, 40 items were at stake. The Barça jersey signed by Lionel Messi, obtained through Antoine Griezmann's entourage, brought in more than €950,000. Behind, the Inception script signed by Christopher Nolan reached €385,000.

The two men logically finish at the top of the ranking. Mastu with more than €5.3 million, the first streamer in ZEvent history to cross the two million mark on a personal pot. Domingo just behind, at €4.7 million. Sport was the fuel of this weekend.

Anyme, the revelation: the Élysée on the phone and a milestone in space

The biggest highlight of the edition comes from a newcomer. Anyme was discovering ZEvent. He arrived in Montpellier by motorcycle, escorted by a whole convoy of bikers, and the tone was set before his first stream.

His donation goals list had 19 milestones. At €150,000, a therapy session with Alkpote. At €200,000, a stream in space, including zero gravity flight. His pot ended at €632,564: both milestones were reached, along with fourteen others.

The sequence that circulated the most remains. Anyme called the Élysée switchboard live to ask if the Presidency supported the ZEvent associations. Administrative response: send an email, expect up to two months delay. No donation followed.

He returned to it at the end of the weekend, facing a France 3 journalist, with a rant against the lack of public support and the opportunism of traditional media around the event. The outburst stirred X for forty-eight hours, without ever turning into a scandal.

What were the craziest challenges of the weekend?

Did you think you had seen the ceiling with Anyme's space stream? The list of announced milestones went much further. Byilhann promised an Istanbul-Paris on foot in continuous stream at €1 million. Flamby put a swim across the Channel at €500,000, and a Dakar-Paris without plane at €200,000 with Nico and Ilhan. Not all were unlocked.

On site, the weekend went completely off the rails. Sylvain crossed the premises aboard a miniature TGV, milestone obliged. Mastu was catapulted into his own setup. Another streamer ended up in PLS after a chili tasting organized by ZeratoR and Domingo.

The most improbable moment goes again to Mastu: the live opening of a Charizard card estimated at more than €10,000, on FaceTime with Antoine Griezmann. A motorcycle entrance, an indoor TGV, a Pokémon card and an international footballer on video call: ZEvent has never better summarized its own logic.

From Twitch to TF1, the last edition of outsiders

The 2026 edition broke down the barrier between streaming and the general public. McFly & Carlito discovered the event and ended at €625,529. Natoo and EnjoyPhoenix also made their first participation, on site.

TV profiles followed the same path. Samuel Étienne, who moved from Questions pour un champion to Twitch, was present for the umpteenth time. Alongside him, Émilien, the champion of 12 Coups de midi, and Clément Viktorovitch, political debate specialist turned live streamer.

A third category appeared without even streaming. Squeezie was not in Montpellier but donated €150,000, the biggest creator donation of the edition. Inoxtag and Amixem gave €50,000 each, Joyca €20,000 via his ZEvent perfume, and business profiles like Yomi Denzel contributed at their scale, with €2,000. Cyprien and Tayc also donated.

The curtain falls: what remains when the embers cool

Ten editions, more than €90 million accumulated since 2016. ZeratoR and Dach announced the news in May: they close the chapter at the top, without letting wear and tear do the work for them. The format ends after 50 hours of live, with about 80 streamers on site and 220 remotely.

The collection, meanwhile, goes entirely through the Fondation de France, which centralizes donations and redistributes them to the 22 associations. Each donor receives a tax receipt granting a 66% deduction within legal limits. This framework allowed ZEvent to last ten years without ever being challenged on its mechanism.

The end was far from a cold ceremony. Hoarse voices, streamers drained of energy, 200,000 people still connected at 1 a.m. At Project X Paris, we look at this scene for what it is: French internet culture proving its collective striking power on a scale few institutions reach.

Want to know what will survive ZEvent? The reflexes. The live donation mechanism is installed, understood, honed, and other formats will seize it from this season. The embers only need a breath.