speedrun

noun

speed·​run ˈspēd-ˌrən 

variants or less commonly speed run

plural speedruns also speed runs

: a timed playthrough of a video game or portion of a video game completed as quickly as the player is able to complete it

Speedruns have, in one form or another, been around as long as video games have existed. There's a simple reason for that: Being the fastest at something is an easy, quantifiable way to measure a player's greatness, not unlike earning a high score.

—Erica Lenti

Start with a speedrunning timer. … It's important to use these, as they show times for various sections of the game as opposed to just one timer for the entire game. They also show what the current world record time is for each section, which you can use for comparison. If you see that you've fallen way behind after a certain section, you can just start the speedrun over, as opposed to slugging through a playthrough you know won't hit the goal.

—Jhaan Elker

A few years ago, she stumbled across a Twitch streamer who was doing speed runs of Super Mario Sunshine—trying to complete the game as fast as possible.

—Avi Selk and Emily Guskin

Examples of speedrun in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The best speedruns reduce epic games meant to take dozens of hours to single-digit minutes through a combination of exploiting glitch-enabled shortcuts and inhuman skill. —Andy Greenberg, WIRED, 10 Aug. 2024

What followed was a speedrun through all the reasons moderation was necessary. —Jeremy Reimer, Ars Technica, 29 Apr. 2024

James flips it upside down for a manic, unpredictable speedrun of a remix. —Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 25 Oct. 2023

This makes finishing enemies or moving around planets far different than we’re used to in Destiny 2 right now, and players are bound to find interesting new ways to use the grapple hook for speedruns or breaking older content. —Tom Warren, The Verge, 16 Feb. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1993, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for speedrun

• begun
• grandson
• gudrun
• handgun
• homespun
• outdone
• outrun
• pashtun
• redone
• rerun
• shotgun
• someone