For anybody who may be unfamiliar with the concept, speedrunning is exactly what it sounds like; attempting to complete an entire video game in as little time as possible. From platformers to action games, there are thousands of speedrunning videos on YouTube and hundreds more are being uploaded with each passing day.

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While short and simple titles may seem like the obvious choices for such an endeavor though, many see a game's difficulty as part of the challenge. After all, completing an easy game quickly is a lot less impressive than tearing through a notoriously difficult title in record breaking time. There's a record for just about every game imaginable, although some of them are a lot more hotly contested than others.

Updated April 3, 2021, by Thomas Bowen: The popularity of speedrunning has exploded over the past year or so, largely thanks to the popular speedrunner and YouTuber, Summoning Salt. His deep dives into the speedrunning history of certain games are incredibly well researched and are a must watch for anybody with even a passing interest in the topic. As his videos go to show though, some games are considerably harder to speedrun than others; either because of the need for frame-perfect inputs or the ridiculous amount of time that it can take to complete a single run. Despite these daunting challenges though, there are still plenty of gamers crazy enough to give it a try.

10 The Lion King

The Lion King was designed to be incredibly difficult to complete. Not because the team behind the game were sadistic or anything, but because they wanted to encourage players to buy the game rather than just rent it. It's a strategy that seems to have served them well too, with the game thought to have sold more than four million copies during its lifetime.

This was helped somewhat by the game releasing for both the Genesis and the SNES, although the two versions are a little different. In the Genesis version, the second level is notoriously difficult, featuring both puzzle and platforming elements that will leave lesser players weeping and tearing out their hair. Of course, this hasn't stopped people from speedrunning the title and the current record holder was able to complete it in just 12 minutes and 19 seconds.

9 Cloudberry Kingdom

Cloudberry Kingdom is a platformer that released for the PlayStation 3 back in 2013 and features hundreds of different levels. There are plenty of people who have tried and failed to complete the game on YouTube even with the help of guides. Then, there are the people who can speedrun it.

Despite Cloudberry's reputation for being one of the most difficult games on the system, the speedrunning community has racked up some ridiculously impressive times. The current record holder was able to complete the game's story mode in just an hour and ten minutes, which is faster than most players can complete the first chapter alone.

8 Bloodborne

Bloodborne First Boss Battle

All of the Dark Souls games are notoriously difficult, but perhaps none more so than BloodborneThe enemies are tricky to beat with very specific patterns and the controls can be a little hard to grasp as well. As a result, it can take players a few hours just to really get the hang of the game, let alone beat.

Many people give up when they reach the first boss, and yet there are people out there who can breeze through the entire game in well under an hour. Over the past six months, the Any% record has been taken below the 20 minute mark while completing the game while defeating all of the bosses has been managed in just an hour and two minutes.

7 Doom

doom 64 review

Doom is probably one of the most popular and influential FPS games of all time and has been ported to just about every console under the sun. With that in mind, it should come as little surprise that it's also a firm favorite of speedrunners, with plenty of people trying to claim the record over the years.

It's hard to imagine how many hours it takes to become good enough at the game to achieve the kind of times that some of them do, but one suspects that it probably requires hundreds of hours of practice. Either way, the best time for completing all four of Ultimate Doom's episodes on UV Speed is sub 20 minutes.

6 Spelunky

Spelunky mining gameplay in cavern

Thanks to its simple yet well realized mechanics, indie platformer Spelunky is incredibly popular with fans of the roguelike genre. It's challenging, but deaths rarely feel cheap and the satisfaction gained from completing a difficult section is more than enough to make up for a few moments of frustration.

It's for this reason that the game is also popular with the speedrunning community. Well. That, and the fact that the game can be completed in under two minutes. The Any% time currently stands at just 97 seconds, while completing the game while also collecting all 114 journal entries has been managed in less than 26 minutes.

5 Outlast

Many games require frame perfect inputs and a deep understanding of their mechanics in order to speedrun competitively. Outlast, on the other hand, instead derives much of its difficulty by demanding that players remain constantly alert to the environment around them; with just a temporary lapse in concentration all that's require to end a run.

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Thankfully, this kind of focus is something that many speedrunners have in abundance, allowing them to tear through the game's main campaign in superhuman speeds. The current 100% time stands at just 35 and a half minutes while the Any% time is a little over eight; both of which are a lot more insane than anything found within the game's asylum.

4 Cuphead

Cuphead is perhaps the most difficult run-and-gun game out there. The controls and concept may be simple, but the game itself is anything but. It has caused players countless frustrations over the years, but, as is often the case, the speedrunning community has got its number.

Even on the game's hardest difficulty setting, players have been able to burn through the game's 20 stages in a ridiculously short amount of time. The current record holder for Expert difficulty did so in just 25 minutes and 15 seconds; a time that will undoubtedly be tough to beat.

3 The Super Mario Series

The Super Mario series should be another difficult one to complete quickly, yet a search for Mario speedruns on YouTube would suggest otherwise. Many people have now mastered speedrunning the games; a task that might have seemed impossible some two decades ago..

While all of the series' games are popular with speedrunners, Super Mario 64 is arguably seen as the holy grail. There are plenty of different categories, but the most challenging by far is the 120 star run. The current record holder goes by the name of cheese and completed the entire game in an incredible one hour, 38 minutes and 25 seconds.

2 The Legend Of Zelda Series

Legend of Zelda Breath Of The Wild Link and Zelda

In much the same fashion, it's become a trend to speedrun The Legend of Zelda games, from classics like Ocarina of Time to the series's newest entry, Breath of the Wild. Some may struggle to understand why exactly anyone would want to speedrun a game like Breath of the Wild when there's so much to take in, but there are plenty of people who do.

The internet and gaming community clout from being that good likely has a lot to do with it, but for some, it's simply a case of proving to themselves that they can. One person who has nothing to prove is the speedrun.com user, Player_5, who recently took the Breath of the Wild Any% time down to just 26 minutes and 24 seconds.

1 Skyrim

Skyrim is infamous for sucking away social lives, requiring hours upon hours of play time to fully complete. Of course, to the average player the thought of trying to speedrun it may seem a little bizarre, but it's actually not as difficult as it might look at first glance.

Much of the game's length is derived from its numerous side quests and distractions, with the main story itself not actually taking too long to power through. Of course, it still takes a ridiculous amount of skill to do so as quickly as some speedrunners have managed. The current record stands at under 30 minutes, which is actually sub 23 minutes once loading times are taken into account.

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