Why do speedrunners exist?

[SorenVC]

Hello. I can't bear my mind on why speedrunners just play the same 4 games all their lives and speedrun them, is it really so much fun such a thrill to get the world record on speedrun.com?

I would rather play online games like Everquest and acquire digital wealth like some cool items or see progress in level-ups or stuff like that. Isn't that more fun than learning a speedrun (which seems boring) and then playing the same few games all your life?

I'm not asking why speedrunners exist at all but why don't any of them play online games like isn't that more fun than speedrunning a singleplayer game? All of them only ever speedrun games they never play anything else.