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, exceeding the previous year's total by more than $100,000. This annual winter event, organized by Games Done Quick (GDQ), featured exciting speedruns of various games including Crazy Taxi, Super Metroid, and many others spanning multiple genres.
Awesome Games Done Quick is held every January and is one of the two flagship events GDQ hosts annually, with Summer Games Done Quick taking place in July. In addition to these major events, GDQ also organizes smaller events like Frame Fatales and GDQ Express to keep the community engaged throughout the year. In October 2024, GDQ responded to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in the Southeastern US by hosting an impromptu Disaster Relief Done Quick event. This event raised over $45,000 in just over two days for Direct Relief, a charity that provides emergency supplies, transportation, and medical support to areas affected by natural disasters and diseases.
As the new year began, Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 continued its tradition of supporting cancer research, raising over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation from January 5 to January 13. This amount surpassed the 2024 total by over $100,000. The Prevent Cancer Foundation focuses on early cancer detection and prevention, as well as funding research and outreach programs. This event marked another successful collaboration between GDQ and the Prevent Cancer Foundation, having collectively raised over $26 million across multiple GDQ events. AGDQ 2025 was held in Pittsburgh and kicked off 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 the challenges posed by the game's copyrighted music, which typically complicates streaming, speedrunner Chuckles825 was accompanied by a live band that performed covers of the game's music in sync with the gameplay. This innovative approach allowed the 18-minute Crazy Taxi run to raise over $24,000 in donations.
The final event of AGDQ 2025 was a thrilling randomized, four-player race of the SNES classic Super Metroid. The race concluded with an incredibly close finish, as runners Eddie and Andy crossed the finish line within one second of each other. GDQ is set to return on July 6 with Summer Games Done Quick 2025 in Minneapolis, where they will raise funds for Doctors Without Borders.
