Top 10 Games for Speedrunners

The Sonic franchise has always emphasized speed, and Sonic Mania is the perfect modern entry for speedrunners. Combining classic 2D platforming with new mechanics, Sonic Mania delivers levels designed for flow and momentum, encouraging players to find the fastest possible paths.

Speedrunners exploit mechanics like slope boosts, zip glitches, and optimized spin dashes to tear through zones in record times. Each level offers multiple routes, giving runners flexibility and creativity in how they approach optimization. Categories range from Any% to full character runs, each showcasing different strengths.

What makes Sonic Mania shine in the speedrunning community is its balance of nostalgia and innovation. It captures the spirit of classic Sonic while adding new depth for competitive play. Watching a skilled runner blaze through levels is exhilarating, embodying the essence of speedrunning itself. Sonic Mania proves that fast gameplay and tight mechanics are timeless, cementing it as one of the best platformers for speedrunners.

Known for its hand-drawn animation and brutal difficulty, Cuphead has surprisingly become a standout title for speedrunners. While casual players struggle with its boss battles, skilled runners turn these challenges into showcases of precision and strategy.

Speedrunners focus on optimizing weapon loadouts, manipulating boss phases, and executing pixel-perfect dodges. Boss fights that typically take several minutes can be dispatched in seconds with flawless execution. Categories like Any% or All Bosses showcase different strategies, with every frame of damage counting toward faster times.

Cuphead’s aesthetic also makes it a viewer favorite. Watching skilled players dismantle its cartoonish but deadly bosses at lightning speed is thrilling and visually captivating. The blend of punishing mechanics and stylish presentation makes Cuphead one of the most entertaining modern games for speedrunning, rewarding skill and precision at every turn.

The original Doom is not only a cornerstone of first-person shooters but also a classic for speedrunning enthusiasts. Its fast-paced combat, intricate level design, and hidden secrets make it perfect for optimizing routes and shaving off precious seconds.

Players exploit mechanics like straferunning and wall clipping to move at blistering speeds. Each level offers opportunities for routing creativity, whether finding the fastest way to keys, exploiting monster behavior, or skipping encounters entirely. Categories range from single-level runs to full game completions, with Ultra-Violence settings adding extra challenge.

Doom’s simplicity and responsiveness make it timeless for speedrunning. The community remains active decades later, continually pushing the limits of what’s possible. Few games demonstrate the enduring appeal of speedrunning as clearly as Doom, a title that continues to define what it means to be one of the best FPS games for speedrunners.

A legend in the speedrunning world, Super Metroid has been a staple of marathons and community challenges since the 1990s. Its open-ended structure, tight mechanics, and abundance of glitches make it one of the most enduring speedrunning titles.

Speedrunners take advantage of techniques like wall jumps, mockballing, and bomb jumps to navigate Zebes at breakneck speeds. The game’s routing flexibility allows for multiple categories, from Any% to 100% completion, each with its own distinct strategies. Randomizer mods have also breathed new life into the community, offering endless variation for runners.

Super Metroid’s legacy in speedrunning is unmatched. Its balance of precision, creativity, and freedom ensures that every run feels unique. Decades after its release, it still captivates both players and audiences, proving that Super Metroid remains one of the best speedrunning games of all time.

Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight is another modern masterpiece that has flourished in the speedrunning community. Its fluid combat, interconnected world, and advanced movement techniques make it a challenging but rewarding game to run.

Speedrunners exploit mechanics like nail-bouncing, dashes, and quick boss kills to blaze through Hallownest. Categories include Any%, True Ending, and All Bosses, each requiring careful routing and execution. Hollow Knight also shines in glitch categories, where runners use out-of-bounds tricks to skip sections entirely.

The variety of categories ensures that Hollow Knight appeals to a wide spectrum of speedrunners, from those who prefer pure skill-based runs to those who enjoy pushing the boundaries of what the game engine allows. Its hauntingly beautiful art and music make it a spectator favorite as well. Hollow Knight proves that challenging design can also be incredibly rewarding, making it one of the top indie games for speedrunning.

Although often seen as a sandbox, Minecraft has carved out a huge niche in the speedrunning scene thanks to its survival mechanics and procedurally generated worlds. The most popular category, beating the Ender Dragon in Any% runs, requires players to craft, explore, and battle with ruthless efficiency.

Speedrunners must master everything from manipulating world seeds to quickly locating strongholds. RNG plays a role, but the best runners know how to adapt strategies on the fly, whether farming Ender Pearls, crafting gear, or exploiting terrain. Runs are a thrilling mix of planning and improvisation, where seconds can make the difference between world record pace and defeat.

What makes Minecraft unique is its constant evolution. Updates add new items, mechanics, and strategies, ensuring that the speedrunning meta is always changing. Combined with its global popularity, Minecraft remains one of the most-watched and most-played speedrunning games, appealing to both casual fans and hardcore competitors.

While not traditionally thought of as a speedrunning game, Dark Souls has become a favorite among runners who thrive on mastery. The game’s punishing combat, intricate world design, and hidden exploits make it an exciting candidate for speedrunning challenges.

Players have developed a wide array of categories, from Any% runs that use glitches like the wrong warp to bypass huge portions of the game, to no-glitch runs that showcase pure skill in combat and routing. Boss fights become tests of consistency, where runners must balance aggression with precision to eliminate enemies in seconds.

Part of Dark Souls’ appeal for speedrunners is its unpredictability. RNG in enemy behavior forces players to adapt quickly, making every run a balance of planning and improvisation. Watching a skilled runner sprint through Lordran, rolling past enemies and dispatching bosses with surgical efficiency, transforms what is usually a methodical game into a breathtaking sprint. It remains one of the most exciting action RPGs for speedrunning, proving that difficulty can be a playground for mastery.

For modern platforming, Celeste is a shining example of a game built with speedrunning in mind. Its crisp controls, momentum-driven mechanics, and punishing difficulty create a perfect playground for players who want to optimize every jump, dash, and wall climb.

Celeste offers multiple speedrunning categories, from Any% runs that focus on reaching the summit as quickly as possible to completionist runs where players must collect strawberries or clear the toughest B-sides and C-sides. The game’s design encourages experimentation, and its consistent physics mean that runs feel skill-based rather than reliant on random chance.

The beauty of Celeste for speedrunners is that it rewards both precision and creativity. Players discover new tech constantly, from hyper dashes to extended climbs, creating routes that continue to evolve years after release. Its supportive community and in-game speedrun tools further cement its reputation as one of the best modern games for speedrunning, blending accessibility with endless depth.

Few titles have shaped the speedrunning community as profoundly as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This masterpiece of action-adventure design became legendary not only for its narrative but for its deep pool of glitches and exploits that make it perfect for speedrunning.

Techniques like the wrong warp, superslides, and bomb hovering allow skilled players to skip entire dungeons, access areas early, and even warp directly to the final boss fight. These mechanics make Any% runs lightning fast, while more comprehensive categories like 100% runs demand incredible consistency and planning.

What keeps Ocarina of Time fresh for speedrunners is its balance between glitch-heavy categories and more traditional routes. Players can choose to demonstrate mechanical execution, puzzle-solving efficiency, or mastery of exploit-based tricks depending on the category. For fans, watching an Ocarina run feels like a magic trick, turning a sprawling epic into a tightly orchestrated sprint. With its combination of nostalgia and mechanical depth, Ocarina of Time remains one of the most iconic games for speedrunners.

When it comes to speedrunning classics, Super Mario 64 is a crown jewel. Released in 1996, this revolutionary 3D platformer became an immediate favorite for speedrunners due to its tight controls, open-level design, and abundance of tricks. Players discovered techniques like backward long jumps, wall kicks, and clever camera manipulations that allow Mario to bypass huge portions of levels.

The game’s freedom of movement makes it endlessly replayable for speedrunners. Categories range from Any% runs, which exploit glitches to reach the final Bowser fight in record time, to 120-star runs where mastery of every level is required. Each category provides unique challenges, ensuring that the game never loses its appeal for both runners and viewers.

Its enduring presence in the speedrunning community comes from the joy of optimization. Even decades later, new strategies are discovered, shaving seconds off long-established records. The combination of nostalgia, technical depth, and pure fun makes Super Mario 64 one of the best speedrunning games of all time, a title that continues to inspire runners across generations.