Summer Games Done Quick 2026: Day 1 Schedule and How to Watch

Summer Games Done Quick 2026 is officially underway, with the week-long charity speedrunning marathon streaming live from Minneapolis, Minnesota through Saturday, July 11. As reported by Shacknews, this year’s event is raising funds for Doctors Without Borders, and Day 1 kicked off with a rare 102% clear of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest.

For the uninitiated, Games Done Quick has spent well over a decade turning elite speedrunning into a fundraising juggernaut, pairing marathon broadcasts on Twitch and YouTube with viewer donations that go straight to the charity of the season. The event’s format hasn’t changed much because it doesn’t need to: a rotating cast of the world’s fastest players tearing through classic and current games back to back, around the clock, for an audience that never really stops watching.

SGDQ 2026’s Opening Day Leans on Donkey Kong Country 2’s Full Clear

According to Shacknews’ Ozzie Mejia, the marathon has opened its Minneapolis week with Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, but this time runner Ryan Ford is tackling the full 102% category rather than a quicker any% clear. That means a complete sweep of the Lost World bonus stages on top of the main SNES campaign, a target Mejia notes has rarely, if ever, been showcased at a mainline GDQ event in recent memory.

The rest of Day 1’s lineup mixes eras and genres deliberately, a hallmark of how GDQ builds its schedules to keep both hardcore speedrunning fans and casual drop-ins engaged. Fire Emblem: Three Houses, The Talos Principle, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Crypt of the NecroDancer: Synchrony and a head-to-head Spyro race across two platforms all feature before the marathon rolls into its overnight block.

Kirby Air Riders and Absolum Make Their Marathon Debuts

Two newer titles are getting their first mainline GDQ spotlight this year. Kirby Air Riders, which Mejia calls one of the best racing games of last year, hits the stage on Switch 2 with runner Bluekandy attempting a full sweep of every track, a run built for speed as much as spectacle.

Later in the schedule, Dotemu’s roguelike beat-’em-up Absolum makes its debut in a co-op warpless run, with threepup and ProfessorBurtch teaming up on a 40-minute target time. Mejia highlighted the run as a personal favourite from Shacknews’ own coverage last year, noting it will be worth watching for how the pair’s teamwork shapes the pacing of a genre usually built around solo play.

Other notable slots include a Snowboard Kids race on N64, a restricted true-ending run of Death’s Door, and a glitchless Supraland clear, giving the schedule a healthy spread of indie darlings alongside the retro and current-gen staples.

Watching SGDQ 2026 From New Zealand and Australia

All of SGDQ 2026’s listed times run on Pacific Time, which means viewers tuning in from New Zealand and Australia will be watching well outside standard evening hours for large stretches of the week. Runs currently scheduled for the US afternoon and evening will typically land in the local morning or early afternoon the following day for Australian and New Zealand time zones, while the overnight Pacific block that includes Absolum and Blue Fire will generally fall around the local evening.

Given the marathon streams continuously and every run is archived, fans on this side of the world don’t need to lose sleep chasing exact start times. Catching the Twitch VOD or YouTube upload shortly after a run wraps remains the easiest way to see standout moments like the Donkey Kong Country 2 opener or the Kirby Air Riders debut without reorganising a whole day around the US schedule.

Why the Doctors Without Borders Total Matters This Week

As with every GDQ event, the real headline number isn’t a runner’s finish time but the donation tally climbing on screen throughout the week. Summer Games Done Quick has become one of gaming’s most reliable charity vehicles precisely because it turns niche speedrunning skill into a broadly watchable spectacle that keeps donations flowing for days at a stretch.

Shacknews has confirmed it will keep posting the daily schedule and highlighting standout runs for the rest of the week, so viewers who miss Day 1’s Donkey Kong Country 2 run or the Kirby Air Riders debut will have plenty of chances to catch up before Summer Games Done Quick 2026 wraps up on July 11.