Any%
Any% is a term denoting the objective of simply clearing a game without any additional requirements, especially in the context of speedrunning. The Any% run begins when selecting the Start button on a new save file and ends after shooting out of the final spark pylon in the Escape sequence in Moon Kingdom.
Speedrun route
Because the only requirement to progress to the next kingdom in an initial playthrough of the game is to collect enough moons within the current kingdom, the Any% route is mostly modular, meaning the routing in each kingdom is mainly independent of the routing in other kingdoms. There are a few minor exceptions to this, such as planning to collect enough coins throughout the run to purchase Power Moons from the Crazy Cap shops in the Wooded Kingdom and Snow Kingdom.
History
After the game was released on October 27, 2017, the world record began rapidly decreasing, reaching a time of 1:05:14 by speedrunner Shaeden before the end of the year. Early speedruns were played on game version 1.0.1, and later the functionally identical version 1.1.0 after its release on November 30, 2017, even after it was discovered that the earlier version 1.0.0 was faster due to a version-exclusive trick known as First Moon Skip. The use of version 1.0.0 and First Moon Skip was banned since it only made one additional speedrun trick possible, and was difficult to obtain due to the requirement to factory reset one's Switch to obtain it.
On February 21, 2018, version 1.2.0 was made available, which introduced the Luigi's Balloon World minigame and patched numerous glitches, including Sphynx Clip and Turnip Clip, which were used in the Any% run. Because of this, it was now even more difficult to obtain version 1.1.0 than 1.0.0, and the decision was made to allow all game versions to be used to prevent the speedrun from ultimately becoming slower. On March 6, 2018, speedrunner NicroVeda obtained the first world record to use version 1.0.0 and First Moon Skip.
After much speculation and anticipation, the one-hour time barrier was finally broken by NicroVeda on March 23, 2019. Shortly thereafter, the introduction of version 1.3.0 on April 25, 2019 made the use of version 1.0.0 obsolete, since although all glitches patched in version 1.2.0 remained patched, version 1.3.0 features significantly faster load times than any previous version, offsetting the time lost to the glitches being patched. The first world record obtained using version 1.3.0 was set on May 3, 2019 by goryuya.
After this, the time would be driven down further with two runners dominating the category, Tyron18 and Mitch, aided in part by the new discovery of Daylight Savings Time Abuse. Tyron18 would get the first time below 59 minutes on October 12, 2019. After this, two new big tricks were found and put to use, being Dino Skip Skip and the Spewartless Luncheon route. Mitch would get the first time under 58 minutes on July 27, 2020 with a 57:54.
The two would continue to dominate the category, but with the all-time first inclusion of 2D Skip Skip in a run, Tyron was able to clutch a World Record with his 57:31. At this point, Tyron would remain untouched and with the help of a new Fish Clip in Seaside and Platform clip in Sand, he would claim the first ever time below 57 minutes with a 56:55 on May 26, 2022.
2-Player
The first World Record regarding the 2-Player sub-category was submitted on November 4th, 2017, and it was a 1:56:53 by chillindude & ChuDat. About 20 days later, BeardBear & JoshiG2010 claimed it with a time of 1:17:47, then TonesBalones and FusJoeDah stole it lowering the time by about thirty seconds. This record stood for a wgile, but on December 26th, Shaeden & Ikkitrix would claim the record with a 1:06:57; in just a week, these two runners lowered the time to a 1:02:06 on January 20th, 2018. This record stood for about 8 months, when Orolme and Parazite, on September 19th, would claim their first world record with a 1:01:58. They would continue to dominate the category, getting the first sub 1:01 run, and the first ever sub-hour time on February 14th, 2019, about one month before Nicro's 1P run. Orolme and Parazite continued to do some runs, even after the 1.3.0 update of the game, and stopped running when the time was at 58:52, on October 28th, 2019.
This record stood for almost two years, when 04dude3, alone, got a 58:35 on July 21st, 2021. He was able to do this with the help of both his hands, which control Mario, and his feet, which control Cappy. One year later, Gorganim got the record on August 22nd, 2022 with a 58:30. These two runners shared some world records, with a final time of 57:47 achieved by 04dude3 which was also the first sub 58 run in 2-Player.
On March 3rd, 2023, Jambo controlling Mario and ZackInTheBoxx controlling Cappy achieved their first world record; their time was a 57:37. These two runners were also the first to get the first sub 57 run, with a 56:54. From there, Gorganim came back with a time of 56:49, but Zack and Jambo claimed it back with a 56:43. With the category now dominated by these two, they continued to improve theirselves and got a 56:22 on December 14th, the first time the 2P WR was faster than the 1P one since 4 years. They were also the authors of the first ever sub 56-minute run, getting a 55:58 on October 1st, 2024.