Speedrunning, for those who don’t know, is a worldwide competition in which players race to complete a game in the shortest amount of time. I’m part of a thriving online community sharing tips and tricks on how to get the best times on games both new and old. Here’s 15 of the very best modern games to participate in speedrunning.
1. Getting Over it
Getting Over It with Bennet Foddy is a blisteringly difficult game. The game revolves around a philosopher trapped inside a metal cauldron bent on summiting an impossible course with only a metal hammer at his disposal.
In this speedrun, players race to the top of the mountain in record time. The gameplay is unique and features a movement mechanic unlike any other I’ve seen before. Because of the distinctive challenge of the game, it’s become a staple in the speedrunning community.
In April of this year, Blastbolt broke the 1 minute mark with an insanely fast speedrun of what has become a cult favorite. If you’re looking for a truly noble challenge of skill and timing, this game will test the edges of your reflexes and patience.
2. Minecraft
Minecraft is a complex open-world game focused on exploration and building inside of procedurally generated pixelated universes. The game’s distinctive style and sandbox creativity made it an instant classic, and subsequent versions introduced a storyline into the game that begged speedrunners to compete for the title.
The goal of any Minecraft speedrun is to reach the End dimension and kill the Ender Dragon boss. Minecraft speedrunning is a contentious subject, with many world records disputed on their legitimacy. The wide breadth of the game and the inherent randomness make it an attractive target for new runners, experts, and onlookers alike.
With multiple installations on PC, Xbox, Playstation, WiiU, and more, this is an area of speedrunning where you could carve out a little niche for yourself.
3. ULTRAKILL
ULTRAKILL is an old school first-person shooter where you play as a combat machine fueled by blood who ventures into hell. Think Doom on steroids. Despite its retro appearance, this game is anything but old and clunky.
ULTRAKILL’s fast paced, hyperviolent mechanics make for a visually stimulating, edge-of-your stead playing experience. This game is insanely fun to play and requires total attention even for casual players. The objective of ULTRAKILL speedruns is to clear the level in the fastest possible time. Players will either do this by clipping through walls or traveling through the environments in a normal fashion, depending on the speedrun category. The straightforward action style of this game makes it a great choice for speedrunners raised on Doom-esq games.
2 months ago, Usson broke the 10 minute mark with the fastest speedrun ever recorded of ULTRAKILL any%. Even though this game has been out since 2019, players are still finding new ways to carve precious seconds out of their runs.
4. Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight is a classic 2D platformer wrapped in a glowing, hand-drawn skin. With commendatory reviews from Destructoid, Game Informer, and PC Gamer, it’s not hard to see why this title has become so popular in the speedrunning community.
Unlike some of the other titles on this list, this game isn’t oppressively difficult or punishing. It’s fun and easy to play, which makes the experience of learning the speedrun that much easier. The end goal of this game is to defeat the Hollow Knight. Players collect items and increase their abilities on specifically planned routes in order to complete the game in the fastest time.
With a super fast sub-32 minute speedrun from SkateKing from only one month ago, this game still has a competitive and ever-changing scene. Definitely something to check out if you’re a fan of action packed platformers.
5. Elden Ring
So the first thing you need to know about Elden Ring is that it’s, uh, kinda the best game ever. No seriously, this game is by far the most fun RPG I’ve ever had the good fortune of playing. Breathtaking environments and insanely fun combat make this game a blast to speedrun.
Online competitions of all kinds for this game cropped up since its release, and there’s no wondering why. Elden Ring’s creative, open world style of play invites players to imagine their own way of beating this difficult fantasy quest. The game ends when you defeat the Elden Beast after defeating Radagon. Speedrunners have to find creative ways to do this without exploring the majority of the game’s areas or leveling their character and collecting the best weapons.
Glitched runs have gotten below 20 seconds at this point. I love the absurdity of the online community’s attempts to take advantage of every game mechanic available, but the glitchless speedruns for this game are absolutely brutal. If you have lightning fast reflexes and are ready to participate in the widest Dark Souls speedrunning community of all time, dive right in, because this one’s for you.
6. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach - Ruin
The Five Nights at Freddie’s series is a fun, horror style puzzle/action game where you play as a security guard trapped inside of a fast food restaurant with a host of deranged animatronic dolls.
The game, in particular its most recent expansion, have been a cult favorite in the speedrunning community for years due to their robust gameplay and complex puzzle-solving style. In this game, you have to survive through a series of nights. Speedrunning this game revolves around using small tips and tricks to skip small portions of the game.
7. Roblox: Doors
That's right- Roblox has speedrunning too
Roblox is crowdsourcing at its best. It provides a modular online platform where players and creators can make their own games and share with others in a huge online community.
There are multiple titles that are popular right now for speedrunning, but DOORS is making big waves. With enormous online competitions being hosted daily, speedrunners compete for growing Robux prizes.
This is one of the best communities to get involved with because of the high level of customization of the game itself. You can basically make whatever you want out of it, which makes this one of the best games to speedrun overall.
8. Superhot
In most speedruns, it pays to watch the screen. Hyper-fast paced action plays out while the speedrunner themselves sit with eyes glued to the display. But in Superhot, the game that only moves when you do, the speedrunners display some intense athletic ability in their movements.
The first time I played Superhot was at a party with some of my friends on his new Oculus. I was so blown away by the game; I knew I had to get one. The game’s unrepeatable playstyle pairs backbending matrix-style movements with the first person shooter genre. Speedruns revolve around completing the game’s various levels in the fastest possible time, requiring light-speed movement and pin-point precision from players.
FOK ran Superhot at 16m 27s just two months ago, making this community one of the most active around. If you’re looking for a game that will keep you flexible on your feet, this is one speedrunning masterpiece you need to check out.
9. Cuphead
Cuphead is a classic run and gun action platformer with a unique visual twist: the anthropomorphic cup hero and all of the environments are in the style of a 1930’s cartoon, complete with watercolor backgrounds and original jazz.
Don’t let this game’s antiquated style fool you- it’s nothing but out of date. The game is visually stunning and speedruns are nothing short of hilarious. They require beating each level and its boss in succession, or beating individual levels in record time.
What looks like effortless maneuvering is really pixel perfect placement and button pressing execution down to the millisecond. This game is a blast to play and watch both alike.
10. Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2 is a free-to-play team based PVP online FPS created by renown game company Blizzard. The first game in the series became a worldwide platinum smash hit, and now that its successor is out, interest is higher than ever.
You might be asking yourself, how is it that Overwatch and speedrunning even belong in the same sentence? Well, as it turns out, speedrunners are an ingenious bunch. Speedrunners in Overwatch 2 participate in categories where they race to see who can achieve the highest status (GM1), or win a match with every character in record time.
It’s becoming more popular to do livestreamed PVP speedrunning challenges, and Overwatch 2 is one of the best games to do it on. So, if you’re an online PVP kind of gamer, this might be the speedrun for you.
11. Celeste
Celeste might seem like an unlikely candidate for top speedrunning games, but as it turns out, this story-driven single-player masterpiece is what speedrunners were looking for: a game that combines split-second button pushing with heartfelt themes in a touching story of self discovery.
Even though Celeste is a hard game, it’s surprisingly accessible. The controls are intuitive and user friendly, and the gameplay is addictive and rewarding. It’s an easy game to speedrun because, well, you’ll want to speedrun it.
The game has a way of drawing you in and making you want to finish the levels in the shortest possible time. And with the huge amount of content in this profound game, you’ll have plenty of chances to vie for the top spots on the leaderboards.
12. Destiny 2
Destiny 2 is a super-futuristic shooter/RPG with an insane array of customizability and depth of gameplay. Players can log in hundreds of hours of playtime to optimize their character and reach new heights in the online arena.
In Destiny 2 speedruns, players compete to beat levels in record time. The game’s wide array of weaponry and gadgets and enormous online player base make this not only one of the most popular games on the market overall, but one of the most sought after for speedrunning WR’s.
For lovers of games like Halo that want a speedrunning-friendly RPG style game that is free to play, this is one of my top picks.
13. Escape the Backrooms
Escape the Backrooms is a co-op horror exploration game that became an instant cult classic. This game is huge on the online community because not only it provides realistically frightening gameplay, but it builds on the growing backrooms troupe of underground media.
To beat this game, you’ll have to cooperate with a team of up to 4 other players using proximity voice chat to overcome dangerous entities and navigate your way through multiple tricky maps. This is one of the few games on the list that offers multiplayer speedruns.
With more than half of the top speedrun spots filled in the last month, this is a competitive and evolving community with plentiful guides to get you started. So, for a more social sort of horror speedrun, get on Steam and check out Escape the Backrooms.
14. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
The Legend of Zelda has a long history of being one of the most speedrun series in video gaming history, and Tears of the Kingdom is no exception. This game is absolutely gorgeous, with a sprawling open world landscape as the setting for this epic adventure.
Several categories of speedrunning exist for this game, including completing the bare minimum in the game, all the way to getting every possible achievement in the game. Gamers around the world are competing tirelessly for the top spots on this game that is less than six months old at the time of this article publishing. It’s one of the few chances to be in the first wave of speedrunning for a game that will inevitably go down in history as one of the most ran games ever.
Tears of the Kingdom’s innovative gameplay invites speedrunning just like its predecessors. But this game’s tremendous scope ensures that you’ll have your hands full. It’s estimated that the game would take over 200 hours to reach 100%. Let’s see if you can do it in under 1.
15. Super Mario Odyssey
No speedrunning list would be complete without an installment of the legendary Super Mario series. Odyssey is one of the most speedran games of all time with over 22,000 runs logged on speedrun.com.
This modern 3D platformer is a favorite for casual and serious gamers alike, and provides a unique challenge for players seeking to complete the game in record time. The end goal of this game is the same as any Mario game- to save Princess Peach from Bowser. Players compete in different categories of difficulty from any% to all moons, meaning they have to collect every single collectable moon item in the game (it’s a marathon).
With routes, tutorials, and even homebrew practice mods developed and released for free to the public by the speedrunning community, this is one of the most attractive and friendly games to get involved with. And its leaderboards are still rapidly shifting!
