Purple coins would definitely be a good addition as collecting them won't stop the game for a moment.

Dustforce. Very little downtime.

Does that make the game go faster, players have itching fingers or is there some other reason?

I mainly watch speedruns so... Subscription/donation notifications, facecam (useless unless doing special condition runs) and timer obstructing the screen and commentary irrelevant to the game. Double bad when you upload a video in somewhere without chat. Then it's like trying to watch speedruns while one-way telephone conversation going on.

Sorry, I'm more of a pure gameplay footage person.

After some thought, the boring moons constitute about 15% of the game so I think 503 moons should be more interesting and have even less downtime than 253 moon missions.

Can anyone tell me if the side areas (the ones with 2 moons) in this game are built so that you can collect all yellow coins in them in one go if you want to?

Actually, I think Super Mario Odyssey has way over 2 hours of downtime ( for 100% run.) and at least 10 minutes of downtime in any% run. I'm counting the Mario grabbing a moon, a moon being spawned, small unskippable cutscenes etc.

Oh...Jazz Jackrabbit has less downtime than Sonic 1, 2 and 3 because of shorter score counter at the end of the level.

One game I found to have very little downtime is Dustforce. Less than 3 seconds per level the most.

...Percentage-wise.

By downtime I mean the following:

1. Loading times.
2. Cutscenes
3. All sorts of "Item obtained" poses.
4. Menus and dialogue popping up.
5. Screen transitions.

etc.

As starsmiley said, mic is not necessary. In fact, mic should be reserved for instances when you have something interesting to say about the run.

253 moon route already looks more interesting and has less downtime than any% one. I wonder how 503 moon route will fare.

Sorry. Typo. I meant gameplay downtime.

Obviously, even loading times could theoretically be skipped by having a simple levels to play while the main level is loading.

This means the following:

1. Animation of Mario grabbing a moon.

2. Small unskippable cutscenes of paths opening/being created.

3. Camera panning to show where a moon has spawned, even if spawns right on top of Mario.

4. Non-instant text and having to confirm when you have to buy something.

And so on. Obviously, interruptions for when the game is loading can't be skipped.

But how much faster would any% and 100% runs be if all those interruptions would be removed or removable from options?

This means the following:

1. The time that starts when you grab a star to a time when you gain control again in the next level.

2. The times when camera pans to show a star spawning or when it shows something opening up.

etc.

How long do these take in minutes or percentage-wise in any% and 100% runs?

Yarn and rift tokens would actually alter the routes quite a bit. For an example in the final level.

If pons wouldn't respawn, it would make some very extensive pon hunt runs but for that a mod and some level tweaks would be needed (hard to do as different chapters have different structures).

For an example, a category that involves yarn and rift tokens?

Could it be getting all applauses, finding all the hidden coins at least once, hitting all the blocks at least once or something else?

Any% may lead to large skips but a quite a bit of time is spent watching cutscenes. 100% may have some tedious moons.

Anything in between, one end or another?

Seems developers know about these as well.

One tip: If you just capture gameplay footage and nothing else, it'll be much easier to record.

What about OCD category where every golden coin has to be collected at least once?