DOOM by the Numbers #1 – Advanced Speedrunning

If we wanted to paint a picture of the DOOM franchise by the numbers, we could talk about aggregate review scores, number of best-of list appearances or awards won, but we think these statistics make for far more interesting trivia (and do a lot more than just pat ourselves on the back.)

9:40.82

Sure, you could spend just under 10 minutes doing something that normally takes just under 10 minutes like, say, write out a shopping list, or fold a load of laundry or listen to an average-length prog-rock track.

Or you could play through the original DOOM in its entirety.

A speedrunner by the name Alexo chose to do the latter, spending just nine minutes, 40 seconds and change setting a world record for beating any complete version of DOOM without cheat codes. And they did it on the Game Boy Advance, of all things.

Now, Alexo did use several glitches and gameplay quirks to aid that record-setting time, especially finding places to move out of the level’s official bounds to take advantage of massive shortcuts. But if you think that diminishes the accomplishment, consider this: Alexo also holds the GBA record for runs without going out-of-bounds (13:48) and while playing on Nightmare difficulty (15:45).

After a reported year of trying through more than three thousand attempts, that’s a record well-earned. Of course, with the many, many versions of DOOM out there and myriad ways to speedrun it, (tool-assisted, 100% secrets, no-kill runs, finishing on a certain difficulty, lowest damage take, etc.) there are still all kinds of records out there just begging for a runner to break.