The week-long video-game charity event Awesome Games Done Quick has come to a close, topping last year’s successful run and raising more than a million dollars.
At press time, the exact figure was $1,555,428.61.
AGDQ 2015 surpassed its 2014 number by a whopping $457,970, which suggests there’s no stopping this creative philanthropic effort.
The stream was also a major success in entertainment terms. The Ninja Gaiden run ended beautifully. Kaizo Mario Bros, a stupidly difficult version of Super Mario Bros. was beaten in front of 120,000 viewers. We saw a man speedrun through Ocarina of Time, while blindfolded and our minds melted while watching this guy play Tetris. Lastly, what would a charity livestream be if there weren’t a marriage proposal thrown in for good measure?
Some people have complained that AGDQ has moved away from gameplay commentary to focus on donation-hyping. In the early days of AGDQ, it was a small group of dedicated speedrunners having fun on a couch and discussing the games. The results were generally pretty.
As the event has grown bigger, however, the couch commentary has been scaled back quite a bit. Now it’s usually one person commenting while another person reads messages from donors. It’s great that attention is being given to those giving money, but the change has left some longing for the streams of yesteryear.
Either way, this year’s AGDQ was a massive success, and we can’t wait for Summer Games Done Quick later this year.
H/T Joystiq
