The Games Done Quick event, made up of some of the most well known ongoing speedrunning charity events, made its triumphant return last week with Awesome Games Done Quick 2021. Last year, Summer Games Done Quick 2020 raised $2.3 million for charity, setting a high-bar for AGDQ to follow up on.
There's a lot to love about Awesome Games Done Quick, as proved by the high viewer turnout and donations every year. Speedrunners work to beat games both contemporary and classic as quickly as possible, with additional categories set up to make runs more interesting. This year, one of the big draws was a run of Halo 3 as an incentive, and viewers made it known they wanted it very quickly.
The turnout over the week was good, and by the end of the final events, AGDQ raised $2.7 million for charity. While this did not top the previous year's donations, which is a bit of an oddity for AGDQ, it is still an impressive accomplishment. A bit of viewer disconnect was always to be expected this year, since the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced the event to remain online. A huge part of AGDQ is the audience in the background, and seeing the games run without it was decidedly odd.
Viewers were clearly enthusiastic about AGDQ in a big way this year, and donations came in thick and fast. In fact, AGDQ raised over $1 million faster than ever before, and the reason was obvious. Viewer donations were coming in hand over fist for the incentive of seeing a run of Halo 3, with multiple donations of $500 and $1,000 coming in during the Deus Ex: Human Revolution alone. Clearly, the online aspect had not lessened player's desire to see their favorite games broken and exploited for maximum efficiency, and they got their wish.
The big draw for many when the AGDQ 2021 schedule was revealed was Halo 3 as a donation incentive. The incentive was met with speed, and Halo 3 proved to be an even bigger draw of donations as it was run. Much of the money that almost doubled the donation pool to its final $2.7 million came in during the Halo 3 run.
As of this article, the future plans for Games Done Quick are unclear, and will most likely be largely decided by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the online AGDQ proving to be a success, odds are other GDQ events this year will not struggle as much as may have been previously feared.