AGDQ 2025 Raises Over $2.5 Million 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 successfully raised over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, surpassing the 2024 event's total by more than $100,000. This annual Games Done Quick (GDQ) winter event featured speedruns of popular titles like Crazy Taxi, Super Metroid, and many others across various genres.

Awesome Games Done Quick, held every January, is one of the two flagship events organized by GDQ, with Summer Games Done Quick taking place in July. In addition to these major events, GDQ also hosts smaller events like Frame Fatales and GDQ Express to keep the community engaged throughout the year. Notably, in October 2024, GDQ organized an impromptu Disaster Relief Done Quick event 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 aid.

As the new year began, Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 once again demonstrated its significant impact by raising over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. This amount exceeded the previous year's total by more than $100,000. The Prevent Cancer Foundation focuses on early cancer detection, prevention, research funding, and outreach programs. Over the years, GDQ events have collectively raised over $26 million for this cause. AGDQ 2025, hosted in Pittsburgh, was inaugurated 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

A standout moment of AGDQ 2025 was the run of Crazy Taxi, a beloved Dreamcast game. Known for its fast-paced gameplay, Crazy Taxi is challenging to stream due to its copyrighted soundtrack. However, speedrunner Chuckles825 ingeniously paired the run with a live band performing the game's music, resulting in an 18-minute run that raised over $24,000 in donations.

The event concluded with an exciting randomized, four-player race of the SNES classic Super Metroid, where runners Eddie and Andy finished just one second apart. GDQ will continue its charitable efforts with Summer Games Done Quick 2025, scheduled for July 6 in Minneapolis, supporting Doctors Without Borders.