‘Global Gaming for Animals’ Day: Give a 1-Up to Animal Rights With These Compassionate Games

Let’s go, gamers! On September 10, PETA is calling on all gamers—from pros to noobs—to boost our Global Gaming for Animals Day (GGAD). The objective? To help our fellow animals.

For GGAD, we’re asking Twitch streamers to give PETA a 1-up by promoting animal rights. Gamers can help us raise funds for the important work that we do, such as shutting down laboratories that use and kill animals in cruel experiments and launching hard-hitting investigations into the meat, egg, dairy, and fishing industries.

Make this GGAD count by speaking up for animals. Here are some of PETA’s favorite animal-friendly games.

Fable II

PETA honored this game with our Proggy Award for the Most Animal-Friendly Game of 2008 for its strong pro-vegan theme. In the virtual fight between good and evil, characters powered by tofu rack up “purity” points, but those who eat meat become corrupted.

Fable II is available on Xbox 360.

Kitten Squad

In PETA’s own role-playing adventure game, players join a squad of animal abuser–fighting kittens in their quest to liberate animals from exploitation. The game’s purrtagonists take on a series of enthralling, action-packed missions, such as fighting evil robots in order to free orcas from a marine-park prison and whisking sheep away from the evil Sheep Puncher.

Kitten Squad is available on PS4, PC, and Mac as well as on IOS devices.

Nintendogs

PETA named Nintendogs the Best Animal-Friendly Game in 2006 for teaching players valuable lessons about caring for companion dogs. While players feed, walk, and play with virtual dogs, they learn that companion animals require a lifetime commitment of love, care, and attention.

Adopting a dog on impulse or giving one as a gift can lead to disaster because many families may not be ready to commit to caring for an animal—and it fuels the companion-animal homelessness crisis. But thanks to games like Nintendogs, children can still play with puppies without taking on the responsibility of caring for a real-life companion.

Nintendogs is playable on Nintendo DS.

Sims 3

PETA gave Sims 3 our Most Animal-Friendly Game Award in 2009 for teaching players about the benefits of eating with compassion. In the game, characters who eat vegan foods—from tofu dogs to ratatouille—enjoy longer lives and age more slowly. If your Sim eats meat, they’ll get sick—much like many meat-eaters in real life.

Sims 3 is available on PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and Wii.

Sonic the Hedgehog

This iconic franchise follows Sonic—a hedgehog who can run at supersonic speed—in his efforts to defeat Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist who turns animals into his evil sidekicks. While players zoom through treacherous landscapes to collect coins and fight off enemies, they’ll also thwart the experimenter’s wicked plans.

Sonic Origins, Sonic Frontiers, and Sonic Superstars can be played on Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Microsoft Windows.

Steer Madness

In this single-player video game, the player assumes the role of Bryce, a walking, talking cow who, after being freed from a slaughterhouse, is determined to turn everyone vegan and end the exploitation of animals. Throughout the game, the player embarks on several daring missions to save animals, conduct undercover investigations, raise funds to support activism, and more.

Steer Madness is available on PC and on mobile devices.

Stray

Stray follows the story of a stray cat who journeys through a post-apocalyptic landscape in order to find his way back to his family. The game broke records on Twitch, inspired countless fundraisers for animal shelters, and showed thousands of players that the “great outdoors” is a perilous place for cats. It was released to overwhelmingly pawsitive reviews, was honored as PlayStation Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards 2022 and won Best Indie at The Game Awards 2022.

PETA also gave the game’s creator our 2022 Company of the Year award for inspiring players to empathize with real stray cats. Around 70 million cats and dogs are homeless in the U.S. at any given time—and Stray drives home the message that companion animals need homes, families, and protection.

Players can download Stray on PS4, PS5, and PC.

Untitled Goose Game

In this game, players act as geese who are trying to reclaim their village from invasive humans. The game gets many things right about geese: They’re intelligent, natural problem-solvers who simply want to live in peace. PETA even gave the creators a Hero to Geese Award for teaching players that geese are sentient, emotional beings with their own feelings and interests.

Untitled Goose Game is available on PC and Mac, Nintendo Switch, PS4, or Xbox One.

Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire

In this action-farming game, players take control of Voltaire—a rebellious vampire who abandons his taste for blood in favor of eating plant-based foods. Voltaire embarks on a whirlwind of exciting adventures to prove to his father—the infamously bloodthirsty vampire Dracula—that vampires can thrive on a no-kill diet.

Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire is available on Steam Deck and PC.

Sign Up for Global Gaming for Animals Day

If you want to speak up for animals on GGAD, sign up to participate: