The gaming community has been raising money for charity the whole week. "Awesome Games Done Quick 2017" has been livestreaming player's speedruns in the name of helping out cancer research. The last few days of the broadcasted event were especially amazing, thanks to the some sizable last minute donations. The event reportedly surpassed the $1 million mark a little past noon.
The next 12 hours after the $1 million barrier was broken, saw even more donations and amazing gameplay from participants, Kotaku reports. Last year, the event was able to drum up a total of $1.2 million in donations, which makes the latest event one for the record books with its $2.2 million raised for cancer prevention. Speedrunning is apparently considered as one of gaming's niche community that has been rising in popularity in the past few years.
This year's "Awesome Games Done Quick 2017" saw around 181 speedruns completed with an estimated 33,650 donors. The contributions had a total average of $51.11 from most individuals, while a $40,000 maximum amount was given by a t-shirt company called The Yetee. The company also reportedly gave out its products for free to participants of the event. The t-shirt company has already contributed a total of $136,000 including donations from past events.
There were several instances during the event that were considered surprising. BubblesDelFuego, a speedrunner playing "Dark Souls III" encountered problems with the first boss early in his run. Additionally, in the later portion of the game within the Catacombs of Carthus area, the game crashed due to a bug. Organizers were able to salvage a save file to have him complete the game. He later revealed that he was also a cancer survivor and the event influenced him to try speedrunning.
Tech Times also reported that the biggest contribution from a single individual was $37,998. The official list of donors and the amounts they contributed can be found on the event's official website. Since the speedrunning competition started in 2010, it has supposedly raised more than $10 million for charity.
"Awesome Games Done Quick 2017" was previously organized by Speed Demos Archive, but is now managed by Games Done Quick, LLC. Interested parties who were not able to participate can still look forward to "Summer Games Done Quick 2017" on July 2 in Minneapolis.
