Animal Well speedrunners are already beating the game in under five minutes

Animal Well is one of the hottest games around. It quickly shot to the top of Steam's top-seller chart after it was released to glowing reviews last Thursday.

While most players complete the main story in four to six hours, it hasn't taken long for speedrunners to figure out how to blaze through solo developer Billy Basso's eerie labyrinth. YouTubers are already posting runs of under five minutes and the any% record (i.e. the best recorded time without any restrictions) is being smashed over and over.

Within a couple of hours of Hubert0987 claiming the world record with a 4:44 run on Thursday, The DemonSlayer6669 appeared to snag bragging rights with one that was 18 seconds faster and perhaps the first recorded sub-4:30 time. (Don't watch the video just yet if you haven't beaten the game and would like to avoid spoilers.)

Animal Well hasn't even been out for a week, so you can expect records to keep tumbling as runners optimize routes to the game's final plunger. It's cool to already see a speedrunning community form around a new game as skilled players duke it out, perhaps for the chance to show off their skills at the next big Games Done Quick event.