AGDQ 2025 Surpasses $2.5M in Charity Donations

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 winter event, hosted by Games Done Quick (GDQ), featured speedruns of popular games like Crazy Taxi, Super Metroid, and many others across various genres.

Awesome Games Done Quick is one of GDQ's two mainline events, with the other being Summer Games Done Quick, held in July. GDQ also organizes smaller events such as Frame Fatales and GDQ Express to keep the community engaged between the major marathons. In October 2024, GDQ responded to Hurricane Helene's devastation in the Southeastern US with an impromptu Disaster Relief Done Quick event, raising over $45,000 in just over two days for Direct Relief, a charity focused on emergency aid and medical response.

As the new year began, Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 made a significant impact by raising over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. This amount was more than $100,000 higher than the total raised during AGDQ 2024. The Prevent Cancer Foundation's mission centers on early cancer detection, prevention, research, and outreach programs. AGDQ's partnership with the Prevent Cancer Foundation has been fruitful, contributing over $26 million across multiple events. The 2025 event, held in Pittsburgh, started 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. Despite challenges with copyrighted music, speedrunner Chuckles825 was accompanied by a live band that played the game's soundtrack, allowing for a seamless streaming experience. This innovative 18-minute run of Crazy Taxi raised over $24,000 in donations.

The event concluded with a thrilling randomized, four-player race of the SNES classic Super Metroid, where runners Eddie and Andy finished within a mere second of each other. GDQ's next event, Summer Games Done Quick 2025, is scheduled for July 6 in Minneapolis, where they will raise funds for Doctors Without Borders.