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Awesome Games Done Quick 2018 – or AGDQ to its friends – has broken its previous donation record, set in January 2017.

The previous record was US $2.22m (£1.61m) – the first time AGDQ had passed two million dollars – but this week, at the time of writing, Awesome Games Done Quick 2018 has raised US $2.28m (£1.65m). That massive tally isn’t set in stone yet, however, and you can still donate to the AGDQ 2018 total over on the official site.

This year’s AGDQ event was notable for another reason: the move to only allow subscribers to comment on streams.

While nobody can doubt the noble aims of Awesome Games Done Quick, the mere existence of a chat function – particularly on a platform like Twitch – means certain unpleasant elements have a tendency to float to the surface. From heckling and general trolling, to outright sexism, abuse and other unpleasantness, it’s actually been rather nice to just have a bit of (comparative) peace and quiet.

The internet, of course, got onto its censorship high horse and complained that they were being shut down unnecessarily. They also prophesied that the overall donation total for Awesome Games Done Quick 2018 would be down as a result.

Thankfully, not only has AGDQ 2018 been a lot more pleasant to watch, it’s raised the most money it ever has. The world’s biggest charity speedrunning event has proven that active moderation and removal of unpleasant elements actually works, without harming the bottom line.

What say you to that, Steam, Twitch, Twitter and YouTube?


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