AGDQ raised $2.6 million in donations in one week

Every year, Awesome Games Done Quick collects donations for a good cause and it wasn’t different in 2023. As in previous years, donations have come in while speedrunners were doing their thing, and AGDQ has raised over $2.6 million.

Awesome Game Done Quick is an annual charity event that ran from January 8-15 and raised a whopping $2,642,493 in such a short amount of time. The amount will be donated to the Prevent Cancer Foundation, an organization dedicated to cancer prevention in America.

The event virtually brought together a bunch of dashing players to raise money by speedrunning — playing games as fast as possible. The event was originally planned as an offline event but was switched to an online event in September last year due to an expiring contract with the venue.

AGDQ in 2023 without Uyama

The 2023 event was also the last event for Mike Uyama, the founder of Games Done Quick. Uyama announced at the beginning of the event that it would be his last year. Uyama has been at the helm of the organization for a full 13 years, which has raised over $41 million for charity during that time. That’s a significant sum, and the organization has come a long way since then.

The first Awesome Games Done Quick was held in Uyama’s mother’s basement because it had better internet than some big hotels:

“It was originally supposed to be held at MAGFest. But their internet wasn’t good enough and my mother’s was, so we hosted it in my mother’s basement.”

GDQ is now an established organization with a professional setting.

After more than a decade, Uyama’s adventure is now over and he will not be participating in the upcoming events. The reason for this is his health. Uyama said:

“So AGDQ 2023 is my 13th year of GDQ. I’ve been at this for a very long time and have decided it’s time to take a break. I realized that I need to take care of my health and focus on other activities.”

$2.6 million in donations collected

For the first 10 years of its existence, AGDQ consistently surpassed its records in fundraising. In the first year, it was $10k, but now it’s in millions every year. There was a drop in donations during the pandemic when Uyama and his organization did not take in as much money as before. This year’s event surpassed the 2019 event but failed to match the records set in the last three years.