Another Summer Games Done Quick marathon has come and gone. As sad as we are to see the ’round-the-clock speedruns end, it’s always impressive when the final donation tally is revealed. They ended up topping last summer’s total for a whopping $2.5 million raised for Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières.
This year’s Summer Games Done Quick event went down from June 30-July 6 at the Hilton Minneapolis, with both in-person attendance and a week-long stream on GDQ’s Twitch channel. Every run is now available to stream on YouTube, so you can catch up on anything you may have missed.
As usual, the week was full of memorable runs, from synchronized Alan Wake II dances to a Low% Ninja Gaiden run that didn’t quite go as planned but was thrilling and inspiring nonetheless. Beloved Shiba Inu Peanut Butter even made a return visit to the event along with JSR, this time slamming a home run in Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball on SNES. There were classic mainstays, like a four-way Super Metroid Any%race, and newcomers like Another Crab’s Treasure, which LilAggy and spicee took on in a head-to-head race in under an hour.
If you have a couple hours to spare, the closer was a 2:38:18 Normal RTA run of the Super Mario RPG remake.
Games Done Quick has now raised $51 million for charity
Summer Games Done Quick 2024 brings the lifetime total that GDQ has raised to an incredible $51 million. That number encompasses the 14-year history of the marathon, which includes Awesome Games Done Quick, Summer Games Done Quick, and the all-women and femmes Frame Fatales speedrunning showcases. Charities supported over the years include AbleGamers, Doctors Without Borders, Organization for Autism Research, Malala Fund, National Women’s Law Center, and Prevent Cancer Foundation.
Speaking of Frame Fatales, they’re the focus of GDQ’s next big event. Look for Flame Fatales to run from August 18-25, live on the official Twitch channel. After that, the flagship Awesome Games Done Quick marathon makes its annual return from January 5-12, 2025 in Pittsburgh.
