5 gaming Pride activations to watch out for this month!
It’s that time of year again — queer nerds everywhere, Pride is upon us!
As we enter the month of June 2026, LGBTQ+ players are excited to use their favorite games as a way to express themselves. And, luckily, many of those games are making it easy for them to show off their pride by introducing special items and events throughout this special season!
It’s time for gamers everywhere to equip their Pride and make their next few weeks of matches the queerest ones ever. Let’s take a look at some of the best activations happening this month and learn what games are helping players be their most authentic selves during Pride 2026!
Warframe
Even in a game filled with intergalactic warriors and jaw-dropping weaponry, Warframe still makes the time to celebrate Pride.
And for 2026, this historic shooter decided to go all out for fans; Warframe’s developer Digital Extremes started out June by donating $20,000 to Rainbow Railroad, a global nonprofit that helps relocate LGBTQ+ people facing discrimination in their home countries. This is already amazing, with the company making it clear that they’re fighting to support marginalized individuals within and outside of their game. And it continued that advocacy with multiple Pride-themed game items and a schedule of queer Warframe streamers playing the game all month long!
The cutest activation of all, though, is definitely the Makeship Kaithe Plushie — a plush version of the game’s iconic mount, decked out for Pride month! And not only does this plushie stand as Warframe’s cutest merchandise ever, but 100% of the proceeds from its sales will be going to Rainbow Railroad, with the kaithe once again helping people get to exactly where they belong.
Riot Games
Few developers go all out for Pride like Riot Games, with the global company always commemorating June with special items and events across its many franchises.
This year’s no different, as each of Riot’s games will feature new Pride content: Valorant will now have an ‘All Love’ spray, Teamfight Tactics will see the adorable shark Shork get a rainbow emote, and Wild Rift will finally add K’Sante as a playable character, with the openly Gay hunter getting an LGBTQ+-themed icon to honor his introduction. Along with this, League of Legends is promising a whole new line of Pride emotes, and Riot as a whole is collaborating with eight fan artists to create beautiful, completely queer artwork for all of their games!
While Riot is certainly celebrating Pride in-game, the company is also supporting the queer community within its own workforce. The dozens of Riot offices will be participating in a ‘March for Pride’ event that will see them raise thousands of dollars throughout the month for LGBTQ+ charities across the world.
Magic: The Gathering
Planeswalkers prepare, because Magic: The Gathering is observing Pride 2026 by offering a unique game mode for all of its LGBTQ+ players!
From June 5th–14th, 2026, Magic Presents: Pride will begin popping up in local game stores across the world to host special tournaments in celebration of Pride Month. These will be a special spin on your usual Commander style game by allowing players to use two Commanders rather than one — because just like in real life, these heroes deserve to partner with the person they love.
The whole event is being fronted by the Spell Slayers, aka Bosco & Irene The Alien from RuPaul’s Drag Race!
The games will come with some special Pride-themed prizes, and anyone who attends can expect the unique promo card ‘Gilded Lotus’ which shows the legendary Planeswalkers — and ultra-powerful girlfriends — Chandra and Nissa in love. Search up your local game store here to join in on these games and kick off Pride with other MTG players!
World of Warcraft
For the first time ever, World of Warcraft will officially be commemorating Pride in-game with the MMORPG’s upcoming event: ‘Darkspear Dash!’
This builds off the existing ‘Running for the Trolls’ event that has been used by players to honor Pride since 2014. This fan-run ‘parade’ sees countless gamers hop online as level one trolls and march across the server, joining together in celebration while raising money for the life-saving organization The Trevor Project. It’s been a source of community and fundraising for years, and the WoW team incorporated it into the game itself with patch 12.0.5. This will still focus on players marching across the server, but now ‘Darkspear Dash’ will happen alongside ‘Running with the Trolls’ and will feature special NPC interactions and items for whoever chooses to participate.
The ‘Running of the Trolls’ is scheduled this year for Saturday, June 27th, 2026 on the Feathermoon-US server at 6pm Pacific Standard Time. ‘Darkspear Dash’ will span from midnight, Saturday, June 27th to midnight, Monday June 29th. That means you better get your level one troll ready, because this year, you’ll have multiple days of taking part in Pride with World of Warcraft players all over the globe!
Dead By Daylight
Dead by Daylight will not be doing anything for Pride… at least, not in June!
Queer DBD fans have loved the game’s yearly ‘Into the Rainbow’ event; this annual celebration sees the game’s studio, Behaviour Interactive, host charity streams, offer Pride-themed assets in-game, and partner with queer creators to raise awareness about important LGBTQ+ issues. 2026’s ‘Into the Rainbow’ is going to be a little different as DBD will be using all of June to commemorate its ten-year anniversary. Instead of hosting Pride this month, the event will be coinciding with World Pride at the end of July.
That means, unfortunately, queer players are going to have to wait a little while before they get the special activations Dead by Daylight has in store. But the game has assured its fanbase that they’re still planning to celebrate Pride 2026 in the best, bloodiest way possible! And, by syncing up with World Pride, they’re reminding everyone of a valuable fact — Pride doesn’t end just because June does. Because games like this want you to play as your queerest self all year long!
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