Internal US Army documents have revealed that the military is still focusing a lot of its recruitment efforts on the worlds of gaming and esports. According to the documents, the army poured millions into sponsoring high-profile esports tournaments, streamers, and gaming events in an effort to shore up its Gen Z recruitment.

These documents, which were obtained by Vice, show that the US Army is still heavily invested in the gaming sphere. Said documents point to a $1 million investment on the Army’s behalf to sponsor the Twitch stream of the HBCU Showdown esports event, in an effort to “focus on the growth of females, Black & Hispanics”.

In addition, Call of Duty was specifically referred to as a useful recruitment tool for the Army. $750,000 was earmarked for sponsorship of the Call of Duty League, as well as the Halo TV show and it’s home Paramount+. The Army apparently also had plans to sponsor Call of Duty Mobile to the tune of $200,000, but, well, it should be fairly obvious what scuppered those particular plans.

In August 2021, an internal Army email supposedly revealed that the Army would back down on the Call of Duty sponsorships due to “serious allegations of sexual harassment” at Activision Blizzard. The documents obtained by Vice also say that continued Army sponsorship of Activision events could result in a…