Speedrunning is arguably one of the first forms of esports competition. As Summoning Salt videos love to showcase, gamers have been trying to go faster than their peers since the earliest days of at-home consoles. This style of completing video games as fast as possible even helped build Twitch into what it is today.
Speedrunners, the competitive platformer created by TinyBuild, is a pvp game that distills the movement, optimization, and pure skill expression that makes speedrunning so captivating to watch. Now, the developers are back with a sequel to push players to go even faster than before. Here’s everything we know about Speedrunners 2: King of Speed.
At time of writing, TinyBuild has confirmed that Speedrunners 2 will have a release date some time in 2025 for early access. According to its Steam page, the full console release of the game will take place in 2026.
As with most indie titles these days, the team has opted to push out an initial early access release rather than waiting for the full game to be complete. While we don’t yet know exactly what will differ between the two versions, the core gameplay should be largely complete as it does not appear to be radically changed from the first game.
The upgrades coming with a Speedrunners sequel seem to boil down into a few key categories:
To improve the graphics, TinyBuild recruited Fair Play Labs, the developers of Super Smash Bros.-like Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and its sequel. The game’s art style has moved from pixel-art to a more modern 3D style reminiscent of NASB, including new backrounds, character models, and UI effects.
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Both online and local multiplayer have been improved to allow up to 8 players at once. This requires stable netcode given how fast the game moves and how precise the timing on jumps and ability uses must be to compete at the highest level in Speedrunners 2.
Finally, TinyBuild’s official release announcement stresses that the game will receive all the competitive “QoL features you’d want to see in a modern competitive game including:
While the original Speedrunners was always a staple at competitive events like Ludwig’s World’s Greatest Gamer and similar content creator challenges, it lacked the online support and infrastructure to shine as a full esport. This single line from the Speedrunners 2 reveal clearly indicates that Fair Play Labs have competition in mind with the new game.
They’ve proven they can create solid netcode in a pvp title, and now with a proper way to matchmake against players of a similar skill and even compete in tournaments, there’s no telling just how high Speedrunners 2 can climb in the esports ecosystem. Even if it never gets teams signing dedicated players, we could certainly see a thriving community find each other at fighting game events and major conventions.
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Games like Speedrunners are most popular and most easily played in tournaments with a console release, so we will likely have to wait until 2026 to really see just how much esports potential this game has to offer.
