AGDQ 2021 Raises More Than $2.7 Million For Charity

Awesome Games Done Quick 2021--better known as AGDQ 2021--came to an end early Sunday morning, and the speedrunning marathon managed to raise big numbers to support the Prevent Cancer Foundation. In total, over $2.7 million was donated during the week-long event, and we saw some truly marvelous feats in a variety of games.

The final donation total for AGDQ 2021 was $2,760,516.03, to be precise, with more than 25,000 different people and organizations contributing. Of these, the largest donation total came from the Games Done Quick organization itself, which donated a little over $187,000, while the shirt website The Yetee donated $160,000 in total.

There were about 150 total runs during the week, including particularly enthralling rushes through games like Hades, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Cuphead. One of the most impressive runs was for Super Mario 64, as runner Bubzia managed to complete a challenge while blindfolded. The run was essentially done through audio cues and memorization. As anyone who has played the game knows, it's hard enough to beat it even the traditional way.

Some of the runs were races between multiple participants, too, as was the case with Sekiro. They have it down to such a science that at certain points, their screens looked virtually identical. Only a few mistakes can be the difference between winning and losing.

With any luck, next year's AGDQ event will hopefully be held as an in-person marathon. SGDQ--short for Summer Games Done Quick--was also moved online in 2020 due to the pandemic, and a special Corona Relief Done Quick event was also held last April to raise money for those affected by the virus.