More than $400,000 USD was raised during Corona Relief Done Quick this past weekend. The speedrunning event began on Friday, April 17, and ran until late Sunday night, gathering donations for Direct Relief.
It wasn’t your usual GDQ event. Corona Relief Done Quick included no bright lights or stage production, nor was there a mass of people sitting in an audience — there wasn’t even a couch full of commenters making puns or taking selfies. The usual GDQ conventions just aren’t feasible during a time when coronavirus concerns has people stay quarantined. Instead, runners broadcast from the safety of their homes as viewers watched on.
Regardless, more than 6,200 people donated during the impromptu event. In total, Corona Relief Done Quick earned $402,568 and change, all of which goes to Direct Relief — a worldwide humanitarian aid organization. The funds will go toward providing personal protective equipment, as well as ” supporting U.S. community clinics and health centers.” Games Done Quick only used Twitch subscriptions and bits to pay for its running costs.
Two speedrunners duke it out in a Super Mario Sunshine race.
What a relief
Corona Relief Done Quick isn’t the first impromptu speedrunning campaign in response to a disastrous event. In 2011, Japan Relief Done Quick earned more than $25,000 to help after the Fukushima power plant disaster in Japan. And again, in 2017, Harvey Relief Done Quick earned more than $220,000 following the destruction of Hurricane Harvey.
The event gathered thousands of viewers to watch nonstop speedruns over the weekend. It began with a 101% run of Donkey Kong Country, and featured games like Halo: Combat Evolved, Super Mario Sunshine, Nier: Automata, and, of course, Super Metroid — a staple game for GDQ.
Corona Relief Done Quick lasted around 70 hours. If you missed any of the runs, you can watch them all at the Videos section of the GDQ Twitch channel.
