Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom speedrun records: Fastest completion, methods & more

❘ Updated: 2024-01-21T04:10:49

Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has had speedrunners working tirelessly to smash through the game as quickly as possible since it first released. Speedrunners are always breaking records, and the best times are always changing. Here’s our complete guide to the fastest speedrun times for Tears of the Kingdom as it stands today.

While completionist gaming has its fans, there are plenty of gamers whose main aim when they get their hands on a new title is finishing it as fast as possible. Known as speedrunners, their playthroughs of games often get major attention online and throughout the wider gaming community.

Oftentimes, gamers will speed run through older titles or ones that follow a more linear narrative. However, with open-world games more popular than ever, speedrunners have begun dipping their toes into conquering giant games such as Elden Ring in as quick a time as possible.

There’s a huge subculture around speedrunning, and dedicated sites list and uphold current records for games old and new.

Speedrunning became a huge part of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom

Although Tears of the Kingdom has been out for a while, speedrunners are still sinking their teeth into the game. After all, the speedrun record for Breath of the Wild is a swift 23 minutes and 42 seconds.

Its sequel, however, has proved a bit tougher to crack. It’s no surprise speedrunners continue to revisit the game, hoping to uncover new tricks and strategies to improve upon records set over the past year.

Without further ado, here is a full breakdown of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s speedrunning history, who currently holds the records, and much more.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s current speedrun record

The latest record-holding speedrun was achieved on January 30. US-based gamer and speedrunner Player 5 took the number one spot on Speedrun.com — with a blisteringly fast run of 40 minutes and 57 seconds. A full 90 seconds faster than UK player RedSlay9’s run from December of last year.

Check out the full speedrun in all its glory below.

It’s unsurprising Player 5 has nabbed the world record for their TotK speedrun. They also hold the fastest time for BotW.

Why Tears of the Kingdom is the perfect game for speedrunners

Similarly to Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom allows players to cut through much of the game’s filler and go straight for the ending.

While of course, this means players will likely be wildly underprepared for the final fight, the creative mechanics in play means that it is much easier for them to cut corners than previous Zelda titles.

Time will tell if and when players defeat Tears of the Kingdom in under 1 hour.

What’s more, the game does offer up some great bonuses when players use their Nintendo Amibo within the game. Kickstarting the game on a much more prepared foot than what it initially allows you to do so.

Previous Tears of the Kingdom speedrunning records

Although the game is still fairly new, that hasn’t stopped hundreds of speedrunners from jumping into the latest competition and staking their claim on the leaderboards. Gamers from around the globe have all pushed the pace, with new records being set on a daily basis.

Shockingly enough, it all started on launch day. Despite Tears of the Kingdom only releasing on May 12, MrGymnast86 managed to post a whopping 1 hour and 32-minute run shortly after it hit store shelves. This was the very first recorded speedrun.

New Tears of the Kingdom PB in 1:32:27. Run had worse execution but saved like 5 minutes because we didn't go to Hyrule Castle to get weapons/fuse partshttps://t.co/C2h87cy5Q9
— gymnast86 (@MrGymnast86) May 14, 2023

Naturally, in the coming weeks and months, be sure to check back in as we update the list with the latest records, who completed them, and the time that they finished the game at.

Want more The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom content? Be sure to check out Dexerto’s other guides and tips down below: