A Shiba Inu Named Peanut Butter Officially Becomes the First Canine Speedrunner

Give a dog a treat, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a dog to speedrun Gyromite, and he'll earn treats for a lifetime.

Written by Zanadood (@mrzanadood)

In the cutest turn of events for 2024, we have our first canine speedrunner, and unsurprisingly, the internet was incredibly invested in his story. 

Peanut Butter looks like any other Shiba Inu, but he comes with a surprising trick. Not only does this dog play video games, but he speedruns them better than most humans. Okay, not all video games, just Gyromite. But still, it's awe-inspiring. At the world-renowned Games Done Quick event, Peanut Butter broke records not for his completion time but solely because a dog has never completed in the charity event’s history. 

The Goodest Boy of Speedrunning

Over a year ago, professional speedrunner JSR_ trained his dog Peanut Butter to compete in Gyromite, a retro platforming game featuring a sleepwalking scientist. I have two large dogs, and training them took loads of time, and that was for basic tricks and boundaries. I cannot fathom how much time it took to train Peanut Butter. JSR_ and Peanut Butter worked diligently to perfect their tandem run using modified buttons and various tasty treats.

Peanut Butter was a good listener and followed his father's directions, pressing buttons on command to raise and lower pillars to deliver the scientist to the end of each level. Peanut Butter (or PB for short) did his very best and had a few minor errors but finished the run in 26 minutes and 24 seconds.

It's not his personal best, but it's impressive nonetheless. The best record for a human is 24 minutes and 39 seconds, and the fact that PB was this close to a human should blow your mind. It is the pinnacle of what Games Done Quick means to the larger gaming community: innovation and challenging runs that push the boundaries of what we imagine possible in gaming.

You can watch PB’s full speedrun here:

All in the Name of Charity

The rise of canine speedrunners is only possible with the amazing work the team behind Games Done Quick accomplishes every year. The Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) occurred between January 14th and January 21st. This year, they supported the Prevent Cancer Foundation; the final fundraising total was more than 2.5 million dollars. It was a herculean feat from the organization, and it was the first AGDQ to be in person since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Four confirmed world records happened during the week-long event. Although Peanut Butter was the star of the show, many other volunteers, both on and off the screen, worked in tandem to pull this event off successfully.