AGDQ 2025: Over $2.5M Raised for Charity

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, held in Pittsburgh, raised over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, exceeding the 2024 event's total by over $100,000. This annual Games Done Quick (GDQ) winter event showcased speedruns from various games, including Crazy Taxi, Super Metroid, and other titles across multiple genres.

Awesome Games Done Quick, held each January, is one of the two mainline events GDQ hosts annually, with Summer Games Done Quick taking place in July. Additionally, GDQ regularly hosts smaller events such as Frame Fatales and GDQ Express to bridge the gaps between marathons. In October 2024, GDQ organized an impromptu Disaster Relief Done Quick event in response to Hurricane Helene's devastation across the Southeastern US. Over just two days, this event raised over $45,000 for Direct Relief, a charity that provides emergency supplies, transportation, and medical response to disaster-stricken areas.

With the new year in full swing, Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 made a significant impact by raising over $2.5 million for cancer research. This amount was over $100,000 more than the total raised during AGDQ 2024. The Prevent Cancer Foundation, the beneficiary of these funds, focuses on early cancer detection and prevention, as well as funding research and outreach programs. This collaboration between GDQ and the Prevent Cancer Foundation has cumulatively raised over $26 million across multiple GDQ events. AGDQ 2025 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. Typically challenging to stream due to its copyrighted music, this run was uniquely enhanced by a live band that performed the game's soundtrack in sync with the gameplay. Speedrunner Chuckles825 completed the 18-minute run, which impressively raised over $24,000 in donations.

The final event of AGDQ 2025 featured a 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 to take place in Minneapolis starting July 6, benefiting Doctors Without Borders.