On Friday, the charity speedrunning stream hit one million dollars for US charity Prevent Cancer Foundation. Late on Saturday night, it hit two million dollars, and the crowd went wild.
Donations hit the 2mil mark during a thrilling Super Mario Odyssey speedrun. As the run time ticked towards three hours, Twitch chat began a $5 donation chain, and the donation counter began to explode.
The commentators were asking for money in all sorts of ways—“donate $5 if you love anime,” “if you think he’s slowing down... donate $5,” and describing certain donations in terms of what it could get them at McDonald’s. The speedrunner, Bayleef, wasn’t super keen on this last method, because after three solid hours of Mario—and being in the food-themed Lunch Kingdom at the time—he was probably very hungry.
It ended up being a race against the speedrunner: reach $2 million before Bayleef gets to the Darker Side of the Moon, a particularly difficult post-game level in Super Mario Odyssey that would mark the end of his run.
The audience chanted “Let’s go Twitch chat” as the donations climbed past $1,950,000, and they began to count down from $1,980,000 by the thousand.
Bayleef hit 500 moons—his goal in the run—just after the donations hit two million in a wonderful moment of synergy. AGDQ might have its share of controversy, but moments like this are what it’s really about.
Bayleef’s run ended at 3:21:12.9, and watching him bounce around The Darker Side of the Moon is almost as satisfying as hitting the $2 million mark.
AGDQ ended, as is traditional, with a Super Metroid run. There is always a donation incentive with Super Metroid: Save or Kill The Animals. This year, it was Save The Animals, so they can rest easy for another 6 months until Summer Games Done Quick.
[Update: Turns out that “Kill The Animals” had a last-minute boost and beat “Save The Animals” and the world is a terrible place.]
The final total for AGDQ 2019 was $2,395,553, surpassing last year’s total by over $100,000.