speedrun

What does speedrun mean?

A speedrun is a race against a game itself. Players memorize routes, exploit glitches and restart thousands of times to shave seconds, and the community treats every record as a small public event. The word escaped gaming because the pattern is so recognizable: if someone is demolishing a task with suspicious efficiency, or failing at comical speed, they are said to be speedrunning it. Both directions count.

Where does speedrun come from?

The practice goes back to the 1990s, when Doom and Quake players traded recorded demos of impossible times. Marathon charity events like Games Done Quick, running since 2010, brought the scene to a wide audience, and by the 2020s the verb had left games entirely: people now speedrun homework, diets and their own downfall.

How to use speedrun

• Two red cards in ten minutes. He is speedrunning his way out of the club.
• I planned to clean one drawer and somehow speedran the entire apartment by midnight.