Speedrunner beats Stray in under an hour

Stray energy drink locations
(Image credit: Annapurna Interactive)

Stray has a new speedrunning record after one player manages to finish the game in under an hour. 

As spotted by The Gamer, a new speedrunning record for Stray has been set by YouTuber Erims. According to speedrun.com, the last recorded speedrun of Stray came in at 58:46, just a couple of days before the current record was set. However, as of today, Erims has now topped this time by just a few minutes after completing the game in 54 minutes and 21 seconds. 

As you can see from Erims' video, this player knows exactly what to do as they zip through all eight areas in the game, from The Dead City to The Sewers, and Antvillage in no time at all. Our little tabby knows exactly what alley to go down, which ledge to jump on, and what buttons to press to further the game’s story in record time. They even take time to spin the poor - probably quite dizzy now - cat whilst they wait in the bucket pulley. Obviously they don't spend any time chasing down collectibles such as the Stray Memories and Stray Badges, as this run is all about the speed!

As of the time of writing this, Erims' impressive playthrough hasn’t been uploaded to speedrun.com just yet, but you can see this record-breaking run for yourself below.

Just a few days before this, we also reported on a Stray no-damage run which meant all the cat lovers out there can watch all of the full game without the fear of seeing the cat being hurt by the Zurks, as it can be quite shocking to see when you're not expecting it.

Since Stray was released just a couple of weeks ago, fans have made small but incredibly interesting discoveries about the game. First of all, we reported that Stray is hiding several Skyrim references in its dialogue after players began reporting subtle references to the Bethesda game in the robot resident’s dialogue. Another player also went as far as translating the mysterious language in Stray and found a few hidden details. 

Still not convinced to play this game for yourself? Find out what it’s like to play Stray in a cat cafe.

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.