Speedrun.com Parent Elo Revokes Creative Commons License and Limits Tool Access

Speedrun.com updated its terms of service on Oct. 1, 2026, eliminating its Creative Commons data license and asserting full database ownership under parent company Elo, according to an analysis published via Hacker News (https://therun.gg/blog/leaderboards-speedruncom).

The update marks the first revision to the site's terms since July 10, 2021, when speedrun.com restored Creative Commons licensing following community pushback. In a Discord statement at the time, the platform had stated that runs belonged to their submitters and committed to maintaining an open framework for community access.

Under the 2026 terms, speedrun.com restricts data usage to personal, non-commercial purposes and defines commercial activity to encompass community projects funded through donations such as Patreon. While active runners can export their own records, third-party developers and community members are prohibited from archiving, importing, preserving, or manually transcribing run data submitted by inactive or former users.

The policy change directly limits external developer integrations and alternative platforms. The maintainer of therun.gg, a donation-supported statistics site, reported that a recently introduced initiative to build leaderboards using speedrun.com records with explicit runner consent is now disallowed under the new terms. The agreement specifically bans competitors from using the platform's API.

Beyond leaderboard and API rules, the revised terms restrict automated artificial intelligence scrapers, assign liability to moderators who import guest runs, and allow speedrun.com to retain user submissions after account deletion. Although Elo permits developers to request individual authorization to access data, community maintainers cautioned that discretionary permissions do not provide the archival protections of an open Creative Commons license.