Awesome Games Done Quick crosses the finish line at $2.64 million raised for the Prevent Cancer Foundation

Gaming for a good cause.

Image via Games Done Quick

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Awesome Games Done Quick, the first video game speedrun charity event of the year, has finally concluded after a week of close calls and memorable moments. The exciting marathon, which has raised money for charity since it first began in 2010, was able to raise a whopping $2.64 million this time around for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

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For those unfamiliar, the Games Done Quick series of events are annually held video game speed running marathons that raise money for different non-profit organizations and foundations. Awesome Games Done Quick, which has always taken place in early January, typically donates all of the money that it earns to the Prevent Cancer Foundation. On the other hand, Summer Games Done Quick, which is typically held in late June or early July, raises money for Doctors Without Borders.

Throughout the course of the marathon, several donation goals are set up by the organizers to provide further community engagement. Viewers that tune in are then given the chance to donate money during different runs in order to reach unique incentives.

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Similar to previous events, a bulk of the donations this year were sent in with the aim of adding more speedruns to the schedule. Each title that can potentially be included has a specific donation goal that needs to be met before it’s introduced.

The most prominent goal this year was a $400,000 goal to add a run of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past to the schedule. Fortunately, these milestones are almost always met and this year was no different as viewers were able to pool together $403,768 in order to add the popular Nintendo title towards the end of the event.