Summer Games Done Quick, the massively popular annual charity speedrunning event, concluded its 2019 run this weekend, raising a record total of more than $3 million for Doctors Without Borders. Not only is that the most that SGDQ has ever raised in a single event, it exceeds last year’s total of $2.1 million (also a record at that time) by nearly 50 percent.
SGDQ has been running annually since 2011. The first two years of its existence, it was a relatively small event, being run out of a private home, benefiting the Organization for Autism Research. Since 2013, however, it’s grown into a juggernaut, filling convention centers to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. SGDQ is a companion event to Awesome Games Done Quick, which is held every January to raise money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
Games Done Quick, the organization that hosts both events, announced the record-breaking total on its Twitter account on the last day of SGDQ. This year’s SGDQ broke several other fundraising records. It was the fastest GDQ event ever to reach $1 million in donations, and the first time that SDGQ raised more money than AGDQ.
Both annual fundraisers are livestreamed and archived on GDQ’s Twitch page. GDQ’s YouTube page also hosts clips of specific runs. While the stream is active, viewers can donate through the GDQ website to enter sweepstakes for various incentives, such as merchandise and original art related to the games being played, and to vote in polls that determine everything from character names to certain in-game decisions that speedrunners make.
The final #SGDQ2019 total: $3,003,889! We just BLEW past our largest ever donation total for a single event! THANK YOU EVERYONE! pic.twitter.com/ObGCOwZNQb
— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) June 30, 2019
The next GDQ event will be held September 27 through 29 at TwitchCon in San Diego, California to benefit AbleGamers. That will be followed by Awesome Games Done Quick 2020 in Orlando, Florida, January 5 through 12. Next year’s Summer Games Done Quick will be held in Bloomington, Minnesota from June 18 to June 20.
