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 successfully raised over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, exceeding the total from the 2024 event by more than $100,000. This annual winter event featured thrilling speedruns of popular games like Crazy Taxi, Super Metroid, and many others across various genres.
Awesome Games Done Quick is one of the two major events organized by Games Done Quick (GDQ) each year, with the other being Summer Games Done Quick in July. GDQ also hosts smaller events such as Frame Fatales and GDQ Express to keep the community engaged between the main marathons. In October 2024, GDQ organized an impromptu event called Disaster Relief Done Quick in response to Hurricane Helene's impact on the Southeastern US, raising over $45,000 in just over two days for Direct Relief, a charity focused on emergency medical aid and disaster relief.
As the new year began, Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 continued its tradition of supporting cancer research. From January 5 to January 13, the event amassed over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, surpassing the previous year's total by over $100,000. The Prevent Cancer Foundation aims to promote early cancer detection and prevention, as well as fund research and outreach initiatives. GDQ and the Prevent Cancer Foundation have a long-standing partnership, with GDQ events contributing over $26 million to the foundation across multiple runs. AGDQ 2025, held in Pittsburgh, was inaugurated with a swift run of Pikmin on the Switch by speedrunner Ray0ken, completed in under an hour.
Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 Raises Over $2.5 Million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation
A standout moment of AGDQ 2025 was the speedrun of Crazy Taxi, a beloved Dreamcast title. The game's fast-paced nature suits speedrunning, but its copyrighted music poses streaming challenges. To overcome this, speedrunner Chuckles825 was joined by a live band that performed the game's music in sync with the gameplay. This innovative 18-minute run of Crazy Taxi managed to raise over $24,000 in donations.
The final event of AGDQ 2025 was an exciting, randomized four-player race of the SNES classic Super Metroid, where runners Eddie and Andy finished within a mere second of each other. GDQ will next host Summer Games Done Quick 2025 in Minneapolis starting July 6, with the event supporting Doctors Without Borders.
