The first Games Done Quick was meant to happen in a hotel. In January 2010 a group of speedrunners planned to stream a charity marathon of classic games from the MAGFest convention “They couldn’t provide internet with a decent upload,” Mike Uyama, the organiser, told EGM, so the runners moved to “the option with decent internet — my mother’s house that was roughly a 10-minute drive away from the venue”. For about 50 hours they played games such as Mega Man and Double Dragon II in the basement, and viewers gave $10,532 to the charity CARE.
The event became a twice-yearly fixture. Awesome Games Done Quick in January and Summer Games Done Quick in the middle of the year each run for about a week, day and night, and Games Done Quick’s own donation tracker now shows more than $62 million given across its events, in over a million donations.
Fast facts
- Began: Classic Games Done Quick, January 2010, $10,532 for CARE.
- Founder: Mike Uyama, an administrator of the Speed Demos Archive, who ran Games Done Quick until January 2023.
- Main events: Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) each January, for the Prevent Cancer Foundation; Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ), for Doctors Without Borders.
- Record: AGDQ 2022, held online, raised $3.4 million.
- Total: more than $62 million by October 2026, according to its donation tracker.
From a basement
Games Done Quick came out of the Speed Demos Archive, one of the sites where speedrunners collected and checked each other’s runs; Uyama was its main administrator. In 2007 Edge had described that world as “a community sport”, spread across four hubs: “the Speed Demos Archive (SDA), TASvideos, Metroid 2002 and Twin Galaxies”. Runners recorded their games and posted the videos. What Uyama added was a live audience. “It’s worth noting that CGDQ being in my mom’s basement was a boon because it provided a more intimate, hands-on atmosphere for the stream,” he said later.
The first marathon was all older games. When it returned in January 2011 it was renamed Awesome Games Done Quick, EGM explains, because it now took games of every age, and it moved to the National 4-H Youth Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, raising money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. A summer event followed in August 2011: 25 players in Utah ran 50 games in more than 60 hours, raising over $20,500 for the Organization for Autism Research. Later summer marathons raised money for Doctors Without Borders.
Bigger every year
The totals climbed fast. Summer Games Done Quick 2019, held in Minneapolis, raised $3,003,889 for Doctors Without Borders, beating the previous year’s record of $2.1 million. Awesome Games Done Quick 2022 took place online and raised $3.4 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation from more than 49,000 donations, the largest sum of any Games Done Quick event to that date. The foundation said Games Done Quick had raised more than $20 million for it in a little over a decade. In July 2024 the summer event raised $2,546,290 and took the organisation’s lifetime total past $50 million.
Uyama stepped down after Awesome Games Done Quick 2023, which was held entirely online after the organisation decided to leave Florida. “Since I started Games Done Quick, I’ve seen it grow from a small volunteer effort to the thriving organization that it is today,” he said. Matt Merkle, its director of operations, took over as owner and managing director.
What viewers come for
A Games Done Quick run is a performance: the audience watches a familiar game being taken apart, live. Edge identified the appeal in 2007, before any of the marathons: “The sheer skill, as well as the glitches, sequence breaks and alternative strategies, are the reason people are interested.” Its examples included Super Mario World finished with all 96 exits in 1 hour 31 minutes and A Link to the Past in 1 hour 39 minutes. Donors can also attach their money to incentives: unlocking a bonus run, asking for an extra trick, or choosing a decision in the game, such as the name of the player’s character.
Sources
- Nicole Carpenter, “The Origins of Awesome Games Done Quick”, EGM (web, secondary): Classic Games Done Quick at Uyama’s mother’s house, the MAGFest internet problem and Uyama’s quotes, the length of the stream, Mega Man and Double Dragon II, $10,532 for CARE, Uyama as the Speed Demos Archive’s main administrator, the 2011 renaming and the 4-H centre, the Prevent Cancer Foundation. https://egmnow.com/the-origins-of-awesome-games-done-quick/
- Games Done Quick donation tracker (web): donation total of $62,621,915 from 1,074,278 donations, as shown in October 2026. https://tracker.gamesdonequick.com/tracker/
- “Speed Freaks”, Edge issue 179, September 2007, pp. 79–83: speedrunning as “a community sport”, the four hubs (p. 80), why people watch, and the Super Mario World and Link to the Past times (all p. 80).
- “Gamers raise over $20,500 for autism research”, press release, Newswire, 23 August 2011 (web, secondary): Summer Games Done Quick, 4–6 August 2011, 25 players in Utah, 50 games, the Organization for Autism Research. https://www.newswire.com/news/gamers-raise-over-20-500-for-autism-research-97648
- Andy Robinson, “Games Done Quick event raises record amount for charity”, VGC, 1 July 2019 (web, secondary): SGDQ 2019 in Minneapolis, $3,003,889, Doctors Without Borders, the previous $2.1 million record. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/games-done-quick-event-raises-record-amount-for-charity/
- Prevent Cancer Foundation, “Games Done Quick sets new record, raises $3.4 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation at annual gaming marathon”, 20 January 2022 (web): AGDQ 2022, online, $3.4 million, 49,000 donations, more than $20 million in total for the foundation. https://preventcancer.org/news/games-done-quick-sets-new-record-raises-3-4-million-for-the-prevent-cancer-foundation-at-annual-gaming-marathon/
- Jordan Middler, “Summer Games Done Quick raises over $2.5 million, taking lifetime total beyond $50M”, VGC, 8 July 2024 (web, secondary). https://videogameschronicle.com/news/summer-games-done-quick-raises-over-2-5-million-taking-lifetime-total-beyond-50m
- Justin Carter, “Games Done Quick founder Mike Uyama announces departure”, Game Developer, 5 January 2023 (web, secondary): founded in 2010, Uyama’s statement, Matt Merkle, AGDQ 2023 online after leaving Florida. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/games-done-quick-founder-mike-uyama-announces-departure
- Wikipedia, “Games Done Quick”, Format section (web, secondary): donation incentives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_Done_Quick