AGDQ 2025 Surpasses $2.5M in Charity Donations

Summary

• Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 raised over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, surpassing the 2024 total by $100,000.
• The organization's mission is focused on early cancer detection and prevention, along with funding research and outreach programs.
• The 18-minute Crazy Taxi run stole the show, raising over $24,000 in donations.

From January 5 to January 13, the Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) 2025 event raised over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, exceeding the 2024 event's total by over $100,000. This annual winter event, hosted by Games Done Quick (GDQ), featured speedruns of popular games like Crazy Taxi, Super Metroid, and many others across various genres.

Awesome Games Done Quick, held every January, is one of GDQ's two mainline events, with Summer Games Done Quick taking place in July. GDQ also hosts smaller events such as Frame Fatales and GDQ Express to keep the momentum going between marathons. In October 2024, GDQ organized an impromptu Disaster Relief Done Quick event in response to Hurricane Helene's devastation in the Southeastern US. This event raised over $45,000 in just over two days for Direct Relief, a charity focused on providing emergency supplies, transportation, and medical response to disaster-stricken areas.

As the new year began, Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 made a significant impact by raising over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. This amount was more than $100,000 higher than the total raised during AGDQ 2024. The Prevent Cancer Foundation's mission centers on early cancer detection and prevention, as well as funding research and outreach programs. AGDQ's partnership with the Prevent Cancer Foundation has been fruitful, with GDQ events contributing over $26 million to the foundation across multiple runs. AGDQ 2025, held in Pittsburgh, kicked off with a swift run of the Switch version of Pikmin by speedrunner Ray0ken, completed within an hour.

Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 Raises Over $2.5 Million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation

One of the standout moments of AGDQ 2025 was the run of Crazy Taxi, a beloved Dreamcast game. Despite the challenges posed by the game's copyrighted music, which typically complicates streaming, speedrunner Chuckles825 was accompanied by a live band that played the game's music live during the run. This innovative approach allowed the 18-minute Crazy Taxi run to raise over $24,000 in donations.

The final event of AGDQ 2025 was a thrilling randomized, four-player race of the SNES classic Super Metroid. The race concluded with an incredibly close finish, as runners Eddie and Andy crossed the finish line within one second of each other. GDQ will continue its charitable efforts with Summer Games Done Quick 2025, scheduled for July 6 in Minneapolis, where they will raise funds for Doctors Without Borders.