Speedrunning, or blitzing through a game as fast as you possibly can, is something that began in arcade games during the 1980s. Players wanted to see how quickly they could complete the game, almost adding it as a new mechanic to enjoy.

Originally, a lot of speedruns relied on glitches. They depended on developers making mistakes in games to allow faster progression. However, by the 2000s and 2010s speedruns had become a communal activity with people watching on platforms like Twitch. For many it was a curiosity to see how quickly their favorite games could be completed. Many were surprised to discover that games that had taken them 50 or 100 hours to play through could be done in just one or two. 

Roots in the arcades

As mentioned, speedrunning had its roots in the arcades. Many players tried to run through games like Super Mario Brothers and Pac-Man as quickly as they could. What was interesting was that many of them found glitches in the underlined. For example, Pac-Man had a kill screen at level 256 that a lot of players looked for ways to get around. 

Interestingly, some game developers supported these speed run tactics. Many nudged people who would have otherwise been casual gamers into individuals who they rewarded with various accolades. The advent of the internet meant that leaderboards became a possibility, and it was easy to see who was beating who. 

3D Doom and Quake in the early 1990s

3D Doom and Quake took this trend to another level. Gamers wanted to see how quickly they could move through various games and set records, record times on different challenges. 

Of course, many of these games weren’t set up particularly for speedruns. Doom in particular didn’t require players to kill any monsters, they could simply run through the levels, grab the keys, and then get to the final door and shut off valves.

However, for many of these games, it was simply a matter of seeing how quickly they could do a full game run. For example, in Quake, gamers managed to complete the entire game in 1996 and turned the concept of speed running into a spectator sport. Other gamers who had struggled for months to make their way through the levels on the game watched in awe as professional gamers tore through levels really quickly and to get to the finish line. 

What was interesting about these early speedruns was how technical they needed to be. Gamers had to understand where to position their characters to the exact pixel in order to optimize their route through the game’s maps. 

Speedruns go mainstream

In the late 1990s, the concept of speed runs became more mainstream because of the launch of the Speed Demos Archive. This expanded beyond Quake to other games like solitaire. 

During 2013, SpeedRun.com launched and then this expanded to more than 20,000 games with millions of submissions of speedruns for the site. What was interesting about SpeedRun.com is how it allowed for glitches and encouraged players to beat games quickly. It also had other modes where players had to kill enemies or collect everything on the way. 

What was nice about these sites was that it fostered verification and made it into more of a competitive sport. Players could see how they stacked up against their rivals, sharing glitch techniques and looking for hacks to outperform the pros. 

Quick games that break the internet

In later years after 2010, it was becoming expected that the era of speed runs would come to an end, but that’s not what happened. Summer Games Done Quick and Awesome Games Done Quick supported speed runs for charitable purposes. Many players went into classic games looking to raise money for good causes like Doctors Without Borders.

What was interesting about some of these speed runs is that players did them with various handicaps, including being blindfolded. That was particularly interesting in the case of Castlevania. These spectacles also made speed running a staple of Twitch streaming. Many audiences got immense satisfaction from watching pro gamers go run through levels as quickly as humanly possible. 

Speaking of Twitch streaming, from 2011 onwards, the idea of speedrunning various raids and group achievements became more popular. MMO RPGs were in their heyday at this time, but many gamers wanted to see professional players deal with bosses and enemies quickly instead of the usual grind that they experienced when they tried to do it themselves with their guilds.

At the same time, this birthed the concepts of e-sports adjacent races, where instead of players entering arenas and battling each other directly, they would fight against the clock for supremacy. Then there was the fact that speedrunning kept retro games alive, since these were most amenable to the activity. Ocarina of Time, for example, saw a resurgence in popularity. 

Iconic runs

Throughout history, there have been various iconic runs that have shattered everyone’s expectations. For example, Blue Scuti completed Tetris: The First Fall Clear of Endless Mode in 2024. This achievement made the headlines and spawned a massive social media response. 

Another epic achievement was Suigi’s 14 minutes and 43 seconds completion of Super Mario 64 16-star. This relied on more than 20 years of practice of the backwards long jump. 

Glitch hunting

Of course, a lot of speed running relies on glitch hunting. Many gamers spend a long time looking for glitches in games that they can exploit to complete levels more quickly. Sometimes these glitches are inherent to the game themselves and can be repeated by other gamers. However, other times they have involved cosmic rays and acts of God. Sometimes particles interact with the game’s programming in such a way that it makes speedruns quicker, but only in specific circumstances.  This phenomenon was recently covered in a Veritasium video. 

So there you have it. How speedruns changed the world of gaming and became an integral part of esports. Have you ever attempted a speed run?