Awesome Games Done Quick wraps up with $2,759,422 raised

The annual speedrun charity event, Awesome Games Done Quick, has concluded, with an impressive $2,759,422 raised for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Awesome Games Done Quick has become a staple event in the gaming community, with the sister Summer Games Done Quick rounding off the year.

Over 2.7 million raised! The @GamesDoneQuick community amazes and inspires us with their generosity and dedication. We can’t thank you enough! #AGDQ2021 pic.twitter.com/2UjIIzSF8O

— Prevent Cancer (@preventcancer) January 10, 2021

This year has been a challenge for Awesome Games Done Quick as they’ve had to forego renting a large convention center in lieu of having runners stream from their own homes instead.

How Awesome Games Done Quick became one of the premier speedrunning events

Awesome Games Done Quick began in 2011 as a small charity event in Maryland. In three years, its total donations went from just $52,000 to $448,000 as the event began to earn recognition. Since 2014, Awesome Games Done Quick has managed to earn over a million dollars a year for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, setting a record in 2020 for raising an incredible $3,164,002.

Last year’s record was set during the biggest Awesome Games Done Quick event ever, and the first one to leave the Maryland-Virginia area in favor of an event center in Orlando.

DRAWING KIRBY SPEEDRUN ANY% WORLD RECORD PACE [VOLUME WARNING] pic.twitter.com/LkmZoYRT8E

— i-win (@i_winxd) January 9, 2021

Awesome Games Done Quick moves indoors for 2021

In January of last year, the first COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States. One year ago, no one knew or expected that the Shining City on a Hill would ever fail so greatly to handle this disease. Each day hundreds of thousands of new cases are reported in the United States.

On top of this, millions more Americans are struggling to make ends meet without jobs, or stuck with the choice of having to go out into the pandemic each day for a poverty wage or potentially lose their only source of income.

For both Americans and non-Americans, it can be startling to be reminded just how terribly this pandemic has ravaged the United States, a country which was once the land of freedom and opportunity for the poverty stricken everywhere.

Our final #AGDQ2021 total is $2,758,847 for @preventcancer! We hope that you had a wonderful time watching all of the runs and talented runners, and want to say thank you to everyone involved in the event, everyone who donated, and of course, all of you for being here with us! pic.twitter.com/nBShMysTxR

— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 10, 2021

It was in the midst of this landscape that Awesome Games Done Quick 2021 decided that the only responsible way to run the event this year would be to have contenders and commentators perform from their own homes.

With these limitations, Awesome Games Done Quick fell short of last year’s record, but still raised over $2.7 million. With all that’s going on in 2021, it’s good to know that good things can still happen.