It’s finally time for the most stimulating live event of the year. No, I don’t mean the Super Bowl – it’s time for Awesome Games Done Quick, the annual charity speedrunning marathon during which, for a week, talented gamers show off the weirdest things they can do with video games.
Games Done Quick (GDQ) has been taking place for 15 years, since 2010. The event is a live-streamed speedrunning marathon in which speedrunners take turns showing off how they beat video games as rapid as they can, often in crazy and particularly impressive ways. In recent years, events have featured increasingly ambitious performances, including blindfolded or one-handed runs, two players using one controller, demonstrations of challenging arcade games, and even speedruns performed by dogs.
The annual event raises money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, which previously raised a record $3,442,033 in 2022 and $2,539,832 last year. And this year’s marathon has some truly absurd runs. There’s a Crazy Taxi game backed by a live band, someone playing the saxophone in Elden Ring, a modern Super Mario Bros. game. Wii with simultaneous piano playing, Breath of the Wild in two-player and one-controller mode, lots of randomizer racing features, and it all culminates in a Map Randomizer race featuring the best Super Metroid runners. If you’ve never watched GDQ before, it’s definitely worth watching.
AGDQ 2025 begins at 9 a.m. PT on Sunday, January 5 with the launch of Pikmin on Nintendo Switch, followed by Portal 2. In fact, Sunday is full of explosions: followed by Kirby’s Air Ride, there’s the Astro Bot run, and then The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, a run eminent for appearing at GDQ every year and getting shorter and shorter as the community discovers modern, shifting skips.
If I continue, I’ll just list every race in the entire event, so here’s a quick list of highlights you should definitely check out. Definitely the top of the range official website for the full schedule as there are plenty of great runs that I haven’t listed here and the schedule will change constantly throughout the week.
Sunday
- 9:00 AM PT: Pikmin – All Parts
- 10:24: Portal 2 – single player mode without SLA
- 13:56: Ori and the blind forest – Randomizer World Tour 11
- 15:30: Astrobot – any%
- 18:19: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker – any%
- 21:14: Alan Wake 2: Night Springs – all episodes
- 22:01: Alan Wake 2: The Lake House – any%
Monday
- 9:54 PT: UFO 50 – presentation of various games
- 10:51: Super Meat Boy – any%
- 11:37: Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS – SMC Any% No automatic
- 15:00: Metroid Prime – Any% Inbounds race
- 16:42: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – any% 2 players 1 controller
- 18:45: Horizon: Forbidden Rest – NG+ Story
Tuesday
- 07:47 PT: Unicorn Overlord – Ana%.
- 8:26: Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana – Bosses of all stories
- 10:18: Spyro: Reignited Trilogy – Spyro 1, Any% NBS
- 13:25: Super Mario Bros. – any%STA
- 18:20: The Last of Us: Left Behind – Remake – Grounded
- 20:05: Silent Hill 2 (2024) – a modern game with lithe limitations
Wednesday
- 8:51 PT: Sonic X Shadow Generations – Any%
- 10:23: Pokemon let’s go, Pikachu!/Eevee! – Any% Pikachu/Eevee
- 13:43: New Super Mario Bros. Wii – any part while playing the piano
- 15:30: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Frost – Any% Original Mode
- 17:07: Fallout: New Vegas – All romances
- 17:52: Super Mario 64 – TAS presentation with A-Button Challenge
- 18:27: Rocket League – presentation of the Speedrun workshop map
- 19:24: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – main quest
At 8:24 PM PT, GDQ will begin a block of games that have been affectionately referred to as “Scary Games Made Fast” or “Horrible Blocking” in past years. These are games that are stupid, crazy, broken, or otherwise of questionable quality and always result in hilarious speedruns. You’ve probably heard of the first reboot, Superman 64, but you may not have heard of the rest. The Awful Block lasts all night long Wednesday into very early Thursday morning. Speaking from experience, I highly recommend people with insomnia and sleepless nights to watch this. The block ends with Kevin Costner’s Water World at 3:11 a.m. on Thursday.
Thursday
- 10:55 PT: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – all dungeons
- 15:00: P lies – any% no glitches
- 17:02: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – any%
- 18:55: CHUNITHM LUMINOUS PLUS – presentation of arcade games
Friday
- 2:36 PT: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth – Any% Easy
- 9:21: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – Vice tightened
- 15:00: Tetris: Grand Master – presentation of many games
- 16:00: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 48 tracks (DLC) 200cc, no items
- 17:45: Kaizo Mario World 3 – 100%
- 18:52: jubeat copious JOIN – Presentation
- 20:07: Super Mario World – 96 exit race
Saturday
Seriously, just stop sleeping and watch it all Saturday. I want to list every game here. It starts with Peggle Extreme and Metal Gear Solid, for God’s sake! There’s nothing wrong with the schedule! Okay, okay, my editor said I needed to narrow it down:
- 6:57 PT: Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire – Free Race
- 10:32: Elden Ring – DLC-locked Bingo
- 12:52: Elden Ring – saxophone-controlled boss show
- 13:27: Crazy Taxi with a live band – Crazy Box
- 14:30: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – no logical draw
- 18:35: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – any%
- 19:55: Super Metroid – map draw race
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Her posts can be found on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Have a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
