Awesome Games Done Quick Raises $2.7 Million for Charity

2021 has had a rough start in a lot of regards: an attempted (yet very clumsy) coup at the US capital, super-COVID infecting around 1 in 5 people in London, and we've already had a few famous deaths, including Jonas Neubauer, a legendary world-class Tetris player. But there's been at least one good thing to happen so far: GDQ, the twice-yearly celebration of speedrunning and charity. All digital yet again, AGDQ 2021 still managed to bring thrills and heartwarming tales for the week it had run, and now that it's over, we can say the gaming community, at the very least, still has its soul.

Because after a week of speedruns, the community managed to raise, collectively, $2,762,537.03. That's over 2.7 million dollars to the Prevent Cancer Foundation, an organization dedicated to detecting and stopping cancer before it becomes the killer we all know and fear today.

It's not as if we didn't get anything for our donations: in return, AGDQ gave us a killer Sonic block where two world records were set, a blindfolded Super Mario 64 16-star showcase, a solo L4D2 run, and brilliant showcase of the underrated and forgotten classic, Mr. Bones.

A good week for a so-far crappy year.