Why is Minecraft speed running so popular?

If you look at the top 100 speed runs in the 1.16 Any% RSG category, almost all of them were set up in the last 7 weeks:

https://www.speedrun.com/mc#Any_Glitchless

Who or what was the trigger? Why is Minecraft speed run so popular now?

I've been following the scene for years, but it's never been as intense as it has been in the past few weeks.

I don't know exactly, but I guess some well-known streamer has started again or because there are hardly any new good games at the moment, they fall back on old classics

There's a little youtuber called Dream who released his series called Minecraft Manhunt. They were so popular that now everyone does speed runs. There were more and more techniques, channels like Minecraft Royale spread the creators, the format view and at some point the point comes where every second person does it. Like now stop.

Probably small or… XD

But don't think that it has anything to do with Manhunt - it's not really speed running. I guess if it's connected with Dream, then with the scandal that he cheated at the speed run, there was a huge discussion.

First: I meant it sakastically, dream has almost 20mill subscribers, of course it's not small.

Second: At that time, Dream was really the only Youtuber who made Minecraft speed running entertaining and popular. There was also Minecraft speed running in the past, but nobody was interested in it. People have noticed that it is really fun to see the Manhunts and so on, which is why they decided to speedrun too. Another factor is the feeling of competition. A world record could push your channel very far, which is why it's another stimulus