Awesome Games Done Quick 2018, the latest edition of the series of speedrunning events that aims to raise money for charity, set a new donation record of $2.27 million.
The annual fundraising marathon barely beat the amount collected by AGDQ 2017. However, if the trend continues, the record for the amount raised by AGDQ 2018 will not last.
Awesome Games Done Quick 2018: Here's What Happened
According to the official stats of Awesome Games Done Quick 2018, the annual speedrunning event raised nearly $2.27 million for charity, from about 45,000 donations with an average of about $51 each.
The event, which lasted for seven days, featured nonstop, 24/7 speedruns. The game that brought in the most donations was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with an almost four-hour speedrun that was the final stream for AGDQ 2018. Coming in second place was the infamously difficult Dark Souls 3, and in third place was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
However, the most popular game was Bloodborne, which attracted over 200,000 viewers on Twitch at its peak. Super Dram World 2, a custom Super Mario game known for its difficulty, attracted 185,000 peak viewers, while The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim saw 181,000 peak viewers in a speedrun that took less than an hour to complete.
The money raised by AGDQ 2018 will be donated to the Prevent Cancer Foundation, showing one more way on how video games do good for the world. The next marathon, Summer Games Done Quick, will run from June 24 to July 1, and it will look to beat the $1.7 million it raised last year.
Awesome Games Done Quick 2018 Record Meant To Be Broken
The record amount of $2.27 million raised by Awesome Games Done Quick 2018 barely beat last year's total, as it was higher by just $41,000.
The event almost did not beat the amount raised by last year's edition. However, the organizers revealed that subscriptions to the event's channel will also be donated for the first time, boosting the total donations by $100,000 to help AGDQ 2018 beat AGDQ 2017.
AGDQ 2018 is just the second time that the annual event raised over $2 million. The new record of $2.27 million, however, will likely not stand for long. There has been a trend since 2011 of the event raising more money that the previous one, except in 2016. This means that AGDQ 2019 will more than likely collect an even higher amount of donations and break the record set by AGDQ 2018.
