This week in speedrunning brought a mix of razor-thin world records, technical breakthroughs, community drama, and a few tools that might quietly change how runners practice. Letās break it down.
š Major World Records: Precision at the Top
The biggest headline comes from classic territory: Super Mario 64.
Canadian runner Suigi pushed the 120-star category to 1:35:25.4, shaving another 2.6 seconds off the record. At this level, improvements are microscopicāmovement optimization and consistency are everything, and even ācleanā runs still have room to lose seconds.
Elsewhere in precision-heavy gameplay:
- Super Meat Boy 3D saw a 100% WR of 1:43:00 by KingjO444
- I Am Fish Any% dropped to 1:08:59
- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate had a brute Tigrex hunting horn run clocking in at 4:59 TA rules
Even niche or experimental categories are getting pushed, showing that nearly every corner of speedrunning still has unexplored optimization space.
š§ Discovery & Glitch Hunting: Zelda and Beyond
A highlight of the week came from the community experimenting in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
A runner posted what might be a new skip or glitch. While details are still early, the excitement is familiar: even decades later, Ocarina of Time continues to produce new movement or logic breaks that can reshape routes.
These discoveries often take weeks to verifyābut when they stick, they can redefine entire categories.
š® Community Tools & Tech: Speedrunning Gets Smarter
Two standout community projects this week:
- A keyboard/controller input switcher for the NES, letting runners toggle control schemes on the fly
- An autosplitter for The Division 2, removing manual timing entirely
These tools donāt just save timeāthey reduce cognitive load. The less runners think about timing, the more they can focus on execution.
Thereās also growing interest in multi-game runs, with one community-made spreadsheet cataloging them across speedrun.com. These marathon-style runs are becoming a niche discipline of their own.
ā ļø Community Talk: Drama & Platform Issues
A discussion thread picked up attention around a video from Niftski that was reportedly taken down, involving commentary about controller swapping rules.
While nothing official seems to have changed, the situation highlights how fragile competitive legitimacy can be in tightly regulated categoriesāespecially when rules interpretation and public commentary collide.
Separately, runners are reporting an āincorrect browser challengeā error on speedrun.com, preventing run submissions (notably affecting games like Celeste). No clear fix yet, but itās currently a known friction point in the community.
š Marathon Runs & Long-Form Grinding
One of the more unusual highlights:
- A full NES Elite Any% completion in ~4 hours, marking a āfirst completion WRā simply because no prior full run existed
And in contrast, long optimization grinds continue:
- A player hit 11:44 in White Knuckle after 100 hours of gameplay
This contrast is classic speedrunning: sometimes the WR is about being first to finish, sometimes itās about shaving milliseconds after months of grinding.
š„ Rising Interest Runs
A few categories seeing increased attention:
- Minecraft Dungeons Any% ā new runners asking for route and glitch guidance
- Horizon Zero Dawn ā consistent streaming interest in story/Any% hybrid runs
- Hollow Knight: Silksong ā newcomers building early route knowledge and tech lists
Silksong in particular is still in the āpre-mature optimizationā phase: lots of theorycrafting, no stable meta yet.
š¬ Creative Side Projects
Not everything this week is pure runs:
- A runner launched a speedrun-themed music album
- Another created a full breakdown video of a complex glitchless WR route
Speedrunning content continues expanding beyond gameplay itself into analysis, music, and production-heavy storytelling.
š§¾ Closing Thoughts
This week shows a familiar pattern:
- Established games (like SM64) still shaving seconds at the top
- New tools quietly improving runner efficiency
- Community friction around rules and platforms
- And a constant stream of discovery in both old and new games
If anything, speedrunning in 2026 feels less like a finished discipline and more like an ongoing engineering projectāwhere the āgameā is just the testing ground.
Source: reddit.com