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 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 featured exciting speedruns from games like Crazy Taxi, Super Metroid, and other titles across multiple genres.

Held each January, Awesome Games Done Quick is one of two mainline events GDQ hosts throughout the year, with Summer Games Done Quick taking place in July. GDQ also hosts smaller events such as Frame Fatales and GDQ Express to bridge the gap between marathons. In October 2024, GDQ organized an impromptu Disaster Relief Done Quick event in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene across the Southeastern US. In just over two days, this event raised over $45,000 for Direct Relief, a charity specializing in providing emergency supplies, transportation, and medical response to disaster-stricken areas.

As the new year kicked off, Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 raised a remarkable amount of money for cancer research. From January 5 to January 13, AGDQ 2025 amassed over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. This total was over $100,000 more than the previous AGDQ 2024 event. The Prevent Cancer Foundation's mission is centered on early cancer detection and prevention, funding research, and outreach programs. AGDQ 2025 marked another successful collaboration between GDQ and PCF, having collectively raised over $26 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation across multiple GDQ events. AGDQ 2025 took place in Pittsburgh and was inaugurated by 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 a run of the iconic Dreamcast game, Crazy Taxi. The game's gameplay is conducive to quick runs, but its use of copyrighted music poses streaming challenges, often resulting in muted gameplay or risking a Twitch takedown. At AGDQ, speedrunner Chuckles825 was accompanied by a live band that played covers of Crazy Taxi's music in sync with the gameplay. This innovative 18-minute run of Crazy Taxi raised over $24,000 in donations.

The final event of AGDQ 2025 was a thrilling randomized, four-player race of the SNES classic Super Metroid, where runners Eddie and Andy finished within one second of each other. GDQ is set to return on July 6 with Summer Games Done Quick 2025 in Minneapolis, supporting Doctors Without Borders.