Best Games to Speedrun

Speedrunning is about pushing games and yourself to the limit to finish them as quickly as possible. It requires a deep knowledge of game mechanics, fast reflexes, quick thinking, and a bit of luck (or RNG).

To become a successful speedrunner, you need to develop gaming skills. The best way to do that is to actually start speedrunning a game.

Choosing which game to speedrun can be tricky. Some games are quick to learn and have an established fanbase online, making them easier to start speedrunning. Others require painstaking practice but are spectacular to watch in action. And some are so hilariously broken that every speedrun is pure entertainment.

To help you find the perfect match, here is our list of some of the best games you can speedrun.

1. Dark Souls

Genre: Action RPG

Platform: PC, Xbox 360/One, PlayStation 3/4, Nintendo Switch

Dark Souls is an action RPG famous for its rich worldbuilding and tight level design. It’s notorious for its uncompromising difficulty and cutthroat multiplayer action.

Set in a decaying world where malevolent undead, beasts, demons, and dragons roam the land, Dark Souls takes the player through a series of interconnected areas. Each area has its own unique enemies, traps, environmental hazards, and loot, and usually culminates with a boss fight.

Dark Souls is a fan favorite among speedrunners. Part of the appeal lies in the difficulty, which forces speedrunners to use unorthodox tactics, glitches, and exploits to beat the game. Dark Souls also features impressive boss encounters. The crowd delights at watching speedrunners destroy these mighty foes in minutes, if not seconds. DarkSouls is definitely one of the best games to speedrun.

2. Resident Evil 4

Genre: Horror

Platform: PC, Mac, Xbox 360/One, PlayStation 2/3/4, Nintendo GameCube/Wii/Switch

Resident Evil 4 (RE4) is the fourth installment of the long-running Resident Evil franchise. RE4 falls more on the action side of the horror genre – deranged cultists, parasitic zombies, and even private military forces assail the player as they try to complete each level. The whole thing is made to feel like an exploitation movie, with ludicrous action setpieces, hammy dialogue, and a plot that goes completely bonkers by the end.

As a speedrunning game, RE4 rewards game knowledge. A deep understanding of the in-game economy, routes, shortcuts, and enemy behavior is essential for running the game in just over an hour.

Fortunately, RE4 has a large speedrunning community, which makes it easy to learn the quirks of the game. It’s a good entry-point for aspiring speedrunners.

3. Doom

Genre: FPS

Platform: PC, PlayStation 1/2/3/4, Xbox 360/One, Nintendo Switch

This classic from 1993 was a speedrunning game before speedrunning became a thing. Doom plays like a race, except the obstacles shoot fireballs at you while screaming like banshees. The Doom engine ensures that you can run the game on pretty much any machine, with excellent performance. This makes it possible to execute the very technical speedrunning strategies required to beat this game in record time.

If everything goes your way, Doom can be a very short but spectacular speedrun. Players have been running Doom since the 90s, spawning new speedrunning categories and challenges. Doom is also a game where runners frequently do playthroughs of community mods. This makes it a favorite at speedrunning events.

4. Minecraft

Genre: Sandbox

Platform: PC, Mac, PlayStation 3/4/Vita/, Xbox 360/One, Nintendo Wii, Switch

You can do anything in Minecraft, including speedrunning. It isn’t easy, since Minecraft is a notoriously unpredictable game. If you get a difficult spawn, fail to get an item drop, or choose the wrong direction to dig, you can lose minutes of progress. If everything works out just right, you can easily take a shot a world record. Speedrunners seem to love it.

Speedrunning Minecraft is all about managing randomness. It’s a game that rewards planning for every possibility and acting accordingly when things inevitably go wrong. As a result, Minecraft is a game where huge world-record upsets are surprisingly common. All it takes is one lucky streak, and suddenly your name is at the top of the leaderboard on speedrun.com.

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5. Tetris

Genre: Puzzle

Platform: Most gaming systems and platforms

The quintessential block puzzle game from the USSSR, Tetris has withstood the test of time. The fact that people are speedrunning it to this day is a testament to this. Some of the most impressive speedruns from recent events are Tetris playthroughs. The dizzying speed at which the runners play will leave you speechless.

Running Tetris is not about when you finish, but how fast you can go. Clearing rows to trigger bonuses and level-ups is essential for speedrunning Tetris, in addition to lightning-fast reflexes and excellent hand-eye coordination. It’s not a game for everyone, but if you manage to speedrun it, you will definitely earn applause.

6. Mushihimesama

Genre: SHMUP

Platform: PC, PlayStation 2

Mushihimesama is a “shoot ‘em up” game that takes inspiration from arcade games of old. It belongs to the bullet hell genre of SHMUPs, which means you will have a constant stream of bullets coming your way at all times. You must return fire while frantically dodging bullets to slay some of the hardest video game bosses. The resulting symphony of bullets and explosions is truly a sight to behold.

Speedrunning Mushihimesama involves learning intricate bullet patterns, timing your primary and secondary weapon blasts, and weaving between the small gaps in the patterns. It’s not an easy game to speedrun by any means, but it’s highly rewarding. The skills you pick up in the game will also translate to other games in the genre.

7. Skyrim

Genre: RPG

Platform: PC, Xbox 360/One, PlayStation 3/4, Nintendo Switch

Skyrim is one of the most popular open-world RPGs in recent years. It’s also hilariously broken most of the time, and patches introduced to fix the game frequently introduce new bugs. This is also why it’s a good speedrunning game: Skyrim’s many glitches, bugs, and exploits make it easy to skip vast sections of the game, setting up for a quick finale.

Another reason for Skyrim’s appeal as a speedrunning game is the variety of builds and run options it offers. The character customization options make for entertaining playthroughs, especially if you use mods to further alter the game. And few things are funnier than a Skyrim speedrun gone wrong.

8. Castlevania Symphony of the Night

Genre: Action RPG

Platform: PlayStation 1/4, Xbox 360,

All Castlevania games are popular in the speedrunning community, but Symphony of the Night (SOTN) stands out as a fan favorite among fan favorites. This side-scrolling adventure requires navigating through a maze while battling Dracula’s minions, including bosses like the Mummy, Frankenstein, and even Death itself.

SOTN runners often exploit glitches to access later parts of the game earlier and acquire game-breaking items to clear the game faster. The movement technique for this speedrun involves back-dashing across entire levels, moving through walls, and intentionally taking damage to further boost speed. If you want to start speedrunning the Castlevania series, SOTN is an excellent entry point.

9. Devil May Cry 3

Genre: Action

Platform: PC, PlayStation 3, 4, 5

Few games are as much of a spectacle as Devil May Cry 3. This game is built around flashy combat—and, boy, does it do it well. The protagonist, Dante, minces demons using guns, swords, fists, demonic blasts, and even a possessed electric guitar. The game is especially a spectacle during speedruns, where skilled runners blast through the game in record time.

Devil May Cry 3 is one of the more technical games to speedrun. You need to consistently perform difficult combos to beat some of the tougher enemies, including bosses. Fortunately, it’s completely linear, so you only have to practice a single path through the game. Devil May Cry 3 takes a lot of failed runs to master, but the effort is well worth it if you want to wow the crowd.

10. I Wanna Be the Guy

Genre: Platformer

Platform: PC

I Wanna Be the Guy (IWBTG) is a tribute to the coin-guzzling arcade games of old. At its core, it’s a platformer like Mario or Megaman, but IWBTG takes the genre to new extremes of difficulty. Everything in the game is out to harm you, and you only have a single life to make it through pixel-perfect jumps, multi-stage boss fights, and even intentional attempts by the developer to kill the player in unfair ways.

Unless you’re an experienced speedrunner with a few platforming titles under your belt, learning to speedrun IWBTG is a challenge. In addition to full mastery of routing and game mechanics, you also need nerves of steel to deal with the countless failed runs you’re bound to make. But if you manage to run a game like IWBTG, you’re certain to enter the speedrunning hall of fame.

Conclusion

Speedrunning is a great way to take your passion for video games to the next level. It requires some talent, lots of practice, and a little bit of luck to get good at it, but it will totally change your perspective on games.

The games we have listed will give you good overview of what’s out there and will hopefully inspire you to try speedrunning yourself.

And remember, the best game to speedrun is the one you actually enjoy playing.