If you are not familiar with these marathons, they are semi-annual events that take place in January and alternating months in summer. Broadcast entirely on Twitch, they’re an opportunity for expert speedrunners to demonstrate their encyclopaedic knowledge of certain titles by completing them extraordinarily fast.
In order to shave off as many seconds as possible from their posted times, these extremely committed players will often learn their chosen games inside out. They will get to know the optimal routes to take around levels, how to exploit glitches that can skip them ahead in the story, and if there are any bugs that can accelerate a given character’s movement.
Becoming a successful speedrunner therefore requires a great deal of discipline and patience, which is why it has become a popular activity to spectate on platforms like Twitch. Awesome Games Done Quick taps into this zeitgeist by lining up a bunch of consecutive speedruns that are livestreamed for a full week. What’s more, it’s all done in the name of charity.
While the summer version of Games Done Quick typically raises money for Doctors Without Borders, the January iteration is always dedicated to supporting the Prevent Cancer Foundation. This will be the case again for the 2022 marathon, with a donation link being hosted at the Games Done Quick website.
To clarify, the organizers do not take a cent from this, as one hundred percent of the contributions go directly to the charity in question. For example, last year’s Awesome Games Done Quick managed to raise $2.7 million in donations for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
When Is the Awesome Games Done Quick 2022 Marathon and How To Watch
The upcoming Awesome Games Done Quick marathon starts at 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, January 9.
From that point onwards, there will be a non-stop livestream that features consecutive speedruns of games like Psychonauts 2, Kena; Bridge of Spirits, Deathloop and even a blindfolded attempt at the notoriously difficult Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The event will then culminate at 12:13 a.m. on Sunday, January 16 with a finale broadcast.
You can tune in at any point during this seven-day period to watch the speedrunners doing their thing. The livestream will be hosted on the Games Done Quick website and their official Twitch channel.
If you miss any individual part of the broadcast, then you will still be able to watch each one later as separate videos when they are uploaded to the Games Done Quick YouTube page.
Awesome Games Done Quick January 2022 Full Schedule
Newsweek has broken down the full schedule for Awesome Games Done Quick below, with the target times that the speedrunners are aiming for in each instance.
