Summer Games Done Quick raises $3 million for charity

Summer Games Done Quick, a charity speedrun marathon that featured a live event for the first time in a few years, was held from June 26 through July 3 in Bloomington, Minnesota. And by the end of the week, when all the runs were done, the event had raised a whopping $3 million for charity.

The total end result was $3,021,310.49, with the entire proceeds to be donated to Doctors Without Borders. When you add that to the $3.4 million that the Awesome Games Done Quick event raised for the Prevent Cancer Foundation earlier this year, that’s a lot of money being donated by people who like to see passionate speedrunners play their favourite games in the fastest ways possible. 

Games Done Quick has been organizing charity events since 2010, totalling over $40 million in donations.

Finally another live event

SGDQ 2022 was the first live GDQ event since the pandemic began in early 2020, so it was great to see viewers joining in live to support and respond to what was happening. In case you didn’t catch the action yourself, here are some highlights. We’ll start with this incredible Ocarina of Time runner that beats the game quickly but does so much more:

And here’s a four-player co-op Pokémon Emerald run with a random number generator that caused the Pokémon to randomly morph into a different Pokémon every time it was levelled up. The result was an absolute chaos:

This is a Super Mario Sunshine run that has its ups, downs and ups again before it comes to an end:

And finally, a Yakuza: Like a Dragon runner that beat the entire game in less time than it took me to do some of the game’s single harder boss fights:

More highlights

Perhaps the most compelling segment of the show saw SpootyBiscuit and Windeu teaming up for a two-person dance showcase of Step Mania, blocking each other’s paths — you have to see it to understand the magic.

the Summer Games Done Quick 2022 featured a total of 134 runs in games like Elden Ring, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Dread, Final Fantasy VI, Mass Effect and many others.

After raising over $3.4 million back in January, Games Done Quick events have raised over $6 million for Doctors Without Borders and the Prevent Cancer Foundation this year.

The next GDC event that fans can look forward to is the women’s speed running showcase titled Flame Fatales, which is set to take place from August 21-27.

Header: Games Done Quick