After a full seven days of continuous speedruns, Awesome Games Done Quick 2021 Online officially ended, raising a total of $2,759,815.03 in support of the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
This is the eighth straight year AGDQ has raised more than $1 million. Despite the entire event being run online and experiencing a few technical issues, this year’s event surpassed its $2.5 million goal.
As always, AGDQ was full of awesome moments, including the first back-to-back world records to ever happen at a GDQ event, raising more than $500,000 in just four days, and pushing GDQ’s lifetime donation total over $30 million.
Related: Games Done Quick surpasses $30 million raised for charity in over a decade
The event hit $1 million during SasquatchSensei’s run of Halo 3 on day five, setting a GDQ personal best for reaching that mark. From there, the total continued to climb until the $2.5 million goal was reached during the Pokémon Blue Catch ‘Em All run at the end of the event.
Hitting the goal added an All Dungeons run for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to the schedule as one last hurrah before GDQ communications director, Kasumi “sumichu” Yogi sent everyone off with some final words.
On top of the usual thank yous to all of the sponsors, donators, and everyone else that helped make AGDQ 2021 happen, the GDQ team also dedicated this year’s event to Paul “TheHerald” Holmen. Holmen helped out at GDQ events alongside gaming supplier World 9 Gaming over the last five years and unfortunately lost his battle with cancer on Dec. 3, 2020.
“While the GDQ team and I step forward cautiously into 2021 and leave 2020 behind us, we acknowledge that there are challenges that remain and are still to come, ” sumichu said. “The team that is empowered by the speedrun community’s support will keep building on what we have and continue forth with our mission — to showcase amazing talent for great causes.”
You can still donate to GDQ and support the Prevent Cancer Foundation by visiting the event’s official website.
