Speedrunners have beatenSonic Frontiersin just over an hour, though achieving this didn’t come without a few sacrifices. A sizable open-world adventure, it usually takesFrontiersplayers about 15 hours to finish the game’s main campaign, but it was just a matter of time until an optimized and admittedly glitchy speedrun record would end up getting submitted.
Given the game’s subject, the fact that speedrunners would try to finish a hugeSonictitle likeSonic Frontiersis hardly surprising. The part that is surprising, however, is just how far some of them have managed to cut the game’s playtime down, going from over a dozen hours of down to just over an hour.
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Speedrunner Katie4 successfully glitched her way through aSonic Frontiersplaythrough that only took a bit over 1:09:00 in total. Katie4 leveraged a few movement glitches that allow Sonic to move even faster and more precisely than he otherwise would’ve been able to, substantially cutting down on gameplay fluff and unnecessary travel time. To be sure,Frontiersis different from any otherSonicgamethanks to its open-world features, but Katie4’s new speedrunning record shows that this was hardly an issue. In fact, the game’s open design allows for more glitching than would probably have been possible in a locked-down, linear adventure game.
While some believe thatSonic Frontiersshould have taken more notes fromSuper Mario Odyssey, the fact of the matter is that the game has sold reasonably well and successfully brought the legendary blue hedgehog back into the limelight. This, of course, includes the speedrunning community’s interest in a newSonictitle. It may be worth pointing out, though, that Katie4 wasn’t too thrilled about some of the mini-games that came up as part of her playthrough, citing poor controls as a major problem.
Launching on Jun 30, 2025,Sonic Frontiershad sold 2.5 million copies worldwideby mid-December, marking an important milestone both for Sega and for theSonic the Hedgehogfranchise itself. In comparison,Sonic Generationslaunched on the IP’s 25th anniversary, selling about 1.85 million copies over the course of an entire year.Frontiersseems generally more successful and likely marks an important new direction for future franchise entries.
Fans have much to look forward to in the short term, too.Sonic Frontiersis getting heaps of free DLCover the course of 2023, including new playable characters and gameplay modes. With that in mind, it may be worth pointing out that Katie4 has specified that her new record doesn’t include completion percentage nor does it touch upon any DLC, which suggests that she’ll be back with new speedrunning attempts as more content forSonicFrontierscomes out.
Sonic Frontiersis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
