Watching the YouTube video of Zero-Master ripping and tearing through Doom with his hall-of-fame run is a sight to behold! If you love the Doom gaming franchise as much as we do (and we really love it!), you’ll have a blast watching Zero-Master. If you check out Zero-Master’s YouTube channel, you’ll find that he’s built quite the inventory of Doom speedruns. Don’t miss it!
Doom Speedrunning History
Speedrunning electronic games is a concept that has been around for years. In the late 1970s, computer gaming consoles were gaining popularity, and the competition to be the best and fastest gamer became intense.
Early Speedruns 1980s
In the early 1980s, Activision invited Dragster gamers to take a photograph of their TV screen displaying a sub-six-second race time for inclusion in a Hall of Game listing. Todd Rogers clocked a time of 5:51 and set a “world record.”
Years of controversy followed the gamer and the record itself. Gamers insisted the time couldn’t be real. Gaming coders/programmers calculated the best theoretical times and determined the time wasn’t possible. Activision stood by the gamer, but ultimately he was stripped of his Guinness World Record title.
Documented Speedruns 1990s
As the availability of the Internet spread, so did the opportunity to document personal best times with evidence. Doom (and soon after Quake) developed the ability to record gameplay and share the demo file recording with your friends.
As Doom speedrunning developed into a “thing,” so, too did the types of speedrunning.
- Fists and knives only
- Killing nobody
Doom Speedruns 2020’s
We’ve come a long way from the early days of Doom Speedruns. Today there are speedrunning forums and Twitch channels dedicated to all the different types of Doom games in the franchise.
Before we dig into Doom’s speedrun stats, let’s take a quick gander at the significant Doom releases.
Doom Versions
Do you see your favorite versions in the list below? We do!
| Units Sold (Millions) | ID Gross Revenue/Steam Gross Revenue | |
|---|---|---|
| Doom (1993) | 4.65 | $8.75m/$2.7m |
| Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994) | 2.0+ | $74m/$1.6m |
| Doom III (2004) | 3.5 | $32.4m/$1.4m |
| Doom (2016) | 5.5+ | $133.5m (Steam) |
| Doom Eternal (2019) | 5.1+ | $190.3m (Steam) |
- Battle demons on Mars, on Earth, and across Hell in these five classic games
- Use new weapons and unique abilities
- Join DOOM's official fan club, the Slayers Club, to unlock unique skins in DOOM Eternal
- Requires Bethesda.net account for some features
The transition from ID software selling physical 3.5 Floppy/CD/DVDs and transitioning to Steam’s online platform creates interesting sales numbers. Steam numbers are far more accurate than ID software numbers or the numbers provided by former employees of ID software that have been leaked or discussed over the years. What isn’t up for debate is that Doom Eternal has the highest Gross Revenue.
Doom franchise games are absolutely among the highest sales for the first-person shooter genre. Sales figures are one thing, but how good are the games anyway? Let’s take a look at what Doom players have to say.
Doom Versions and Player Satisfaction
If you’re like us, you want to know how good a game is before you break out the cash. Luckily, Steam has a lot of data to share.
| Avg. Playtime (hours) | Positive Reviews | |
|---|---|---|
| Doom | 17.6 | 96.7% |
| Doom II: Hell on Earth | 26.4 | 95.1% |
| Doom III | 21.6 | 89.3% |
| Doom | 38.1 | 95.3% |
| Doom-Eternal | 58 | 90.8% |
- Direct sequel to DOOM 2016
- Slay demons across dimensions with new weapons and abilities
- Developed by id Software
- All new soundtrack composed by Mick Gordon
Since a considerable number of players are now playing through the Steam portal, Steam can collect a massive amount of gameplay information. The chart above shows how long it takes to complete each version of Doom.
The Positive Review column indicates the highest level of satisfaction with the initial (1993) version of Doom! How wild is that?!?
Now that we have a general idea of all the different versions of Doom, we’ll look at Speedrunning for each version. Each game version has various gameplay categories (it’s a bit dizzying).
Doom Speedrun Modes
Long gone are the days of a screenshot being enough proof to set a speed run record. So today, you’ll need to carefully select what kind of speed record you want to attempt. And then, there are three primary selections.
- UV Speed: Finish a level as quickly as you can in Ultra Violence Mode.
- Next is UV Max: Killing all the monsters, not killing lost souls, and finding 100% of the level secrets.
- Finally, you can choose UV Pacifist: Do no harm. Do not shoot, chainsaw, or punch monsters. Do not indirectly kill or injure monsters by crushing them.
The list goes on for a bit, but these are the primary selections.
Unrestricted vs. Limited
Do you want to play Doom with glitches and software augmentation, or do you want to do it all yourself?
Unrestricted
- Get it done! Finish the Doom game as fast as you can.
- There are no additional rules! Walk through walls, exploit glitches, and stand in the correct location to kill monsters. You do you!
- Set the difficulty level to “Classic” (You wimp! Better bring your momma too!), Nightmare, or Ultra-Nightmare. Classic seems to have the most action for Speed Runs.
Limited
- Get it done! Finish the game of Doom as fast as humanly possible!
- No rail boost, jaw speed, special fish, invisibility glitch, infinite crucible, slope burst, or prop burst with time slowing allowed.
Any % vs. Any % Restricted vs. 100%
- An attempt in Any % means you don’t need to clear every obstacle. Just finish as quickly as you can.
- Up next is a speed run in Any % Restricted equals certain glitches are excluded from your run.
- Finally, 100% means you’ll be doing it all. The goal is to finish the entire game of Doom as fast as possible but complete all the missions. You’ll be collecting weapons, collectibles, suit upgrades, and codexes.
Doom Speedrun Hall of Fame
Now that we understand all the criteria let’s look at the actual speed-running game performance!
Any%/Unrestricted/Classic
| Year | Who | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | therealpaisano | 17m 48s 820ms |
| 2022 | DrLa | 18m 18s 630ms |
Gamers are literally skipping chapters, stepping through walls, and generally flying through the game in the Any %, Unrestricted, Classic configuration.
Any%/Restricted/Classic
| Year | Who | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | MuteD | 57m 34s 750ms |
| 2022 | DrakePHOSE | 59m 12s 040ms |
There are a few more rules to follow when playing in a Restricted mode. Players need to process through the entire game but not use any software glitches to make it happen.
100%/Restricted/Ultra-Nightmare
| Year | Who | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | AbsoluteMassive | 1hr 42m 46s 570ms |
| 2023 | MuteD | 1hr 43m 44s 950ms |
| 2020 | Zero-Master | 2hr 22m 11s 000ms |
100% Restricted in Ultra-Nightmare mode is where the big kids come to play! The completion times are much longer because the players must collect all the weapons and toys and complete every chapter. No skipping!
Zero-Master’s Doom Speedrun
Watching Zero-Master’s Doom Speedrun is an exercise in awe. We’ve played Doom. We’re not newbies to the world of Doom. We may have installed our first Doom from a series of floppy disks. (Don’t tell anyone!)
Zero-Master’s Doom Speedrun is so fast that we often can’t tell what keyboard strokes they took. Here are our top highlights.
- 52:57. Holy smokes, this is intense! How many enemies were defeated, walls climbed, secrets detected, and weapons swapped out in 60 seconds?!? The gameplay is swift. Look, we’re old, and we know it.
- 1:17:03. In the time it took us to blink a few times and draw a break, Zero-Master is propelling themselves or yanking themselves across the room. Zero-Master demonstrates some seriously smooth moves.
- 1:55:26. We’re not going to admit how many times we played this section, again and again, because we’re as slow as molasses on a cold winter’s day.
Speaking of slow-moving, this brings us to a good point; we know we’re slow with our Doom gaming skills. Compared to Zero-Master, we’re all moving as slowly as turtles. Come on and join us; grab your favorite beverage and snack. Let’s watch Zero-Master’s Doom Speedrun!
- Doom Slayers Collection - Nintendo Switch
- Battle demons on Mars, on Earth, and across Hell in these five classic games
- Use new weapons and unique abilities
- Join DOOM's official fan club, the Slayers Club, to unlock unique skins in DOOM Eternal
- Requires Bethesda.net account for some features
- Doom: Eternal (PS4)
- Direct sequel to DOOM 2016
- Slay demons across dimensions with new weapons and abilities
- Developed by id Software
- All new soundtrack composed by Mick Gordon
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Pryimak Anastasiia/Shutterstock.com.
