Speedrunning is the practice of beating games—sometimes just parts of them—as fast as possible, usually by bending the game’s rules, bugs, or glitches to a speedrunner’s will. Pros map out every move, optimize routes, and use handy tools like auto-splitters or even TAS planning, all in the name of shaving off a few milliseconds (because every millisecond counts, apparently). Curious about the strange, competitive world where even Mario gets bullied for speed? There’s much more to see.
In the world of gaming, few subcultures move as fast—literally and figuratively—as speedrunning. At its core, speedrunning is about finishing a game, or a specific part of it, as quickly as possible. Players squeeze every last second from their runs, sometimes by skill, sometimes by exploiting the game’s quirks—think bugs, glitches, and the occasional “how did they even find that?” moment.
The main goal? Get the fastest completion time, no matter what it takes. For some, that means blasting through a game with any tool or trick available—these are the famous “any%” runs, where the only real rule is to finish, even if you break the game (and maybe a developer’s heart) along the way.
Any% runs are all about finishing fast—glitches, tricks, and broken rules welcome, as long as you cross that finish line first.
Others prefer “glitchless” runs, which, as the name suggests, means no funny business—just pure skill and perfectly timed moves. There’s also the marathon “100%” runs, where speedrunners complete every single objective, sometimes for hours on end. It’s impressive, if not a little masochistic.
Speedrunning emerged with the rise of online gaming communities, reflecting the competitive nature of gaming and the drive to push boundaries. Speedrunning isn’t just about playing alone in a dark room, either. The community is famously collaborative, with forums and hubs—like Speedrun.com—serving as the digital watering holes for sharing strategies, routes, and the occasional meme. If someone discovers a new trick, it spreads like wildfire. Online platforms and communities help speedrunners stay connected and support the sharing of techniques and strategies that drive the hobby forward.
Rivalries exist, sure, but there’s a lot more teamwork than trash talk. Optimizing a run takes practice—copious, sometimes mind-numbing practice. Speedrunners memorize sequences, optimize routes, and even rely on special tools. Some use TAS, or tool-assisted speedruns, to map out what’s theoretically possible.
Others use auto-splitters or memory watchers, because, apparently, shaving milliseconds isn’t obsessive at all. Pretty much any game can be speedrun—old classics, obscure indies, even games not really meant to be finished quickly. The variety is staggering, with custom challenges that sometimes make you wonder if speedrunners just enjoy suffering. Newcomers should focus on choosing a game they enjoy playing repeatedly, as familiarity with the mechanics is essential for successful speedrunning.
In the end, speedrunning is a test of skill, persistence, and occasionally, who can break the game the hardest. And isn’t that, in some way, what gaming’s all about?