admin 
I’ve had some remarkably long gaming sessions in my time. At least, I thought they were remarkably long. Turns out, I’m an amateur when compared to the likes of Szabolcs Csépe, also known as GrassHopper, a Hungarian gamer who now lays claim to the Guinness World Records’ title of “longest videogame marathon” for playing Dance Dance Revolution for 144 hours, or six straight days.
Dancing to more than 3,000 songs, and apparently burning 22,000 calories in the process, GrassHopper soared past the previous world record of 138 hours, which was set by Carrie Swidecki in 2015 while playing Just Dance (h/t VGC). In fact, the previous record was an inspiration for GrassHopper who said, “Ever since I learned about [Swidecki’s] achievements in marathon gaming, I often caught myself thinking about how she pulled the all-time longest session off almost a decade ago.
Though Grasshopper certainly sweated the most and burned the most calories during the six-day marathon, it was a team effort. As Grasshopper said,
This attempt was the most physically demanding experience, where the arms and shoulders expressed fatigue for extended hours without stretching. Apart from physically training for marathon gaming sessions, I prepared with the two most important keys to succeed: doing serious practice attempts with a small staff, and also coming up with a plan for supporting your body with sufficient food and water intake.
This isn’t GrassHopper’s first rodeo when it comes to marathoning games and setting records. He previously broke the world record for the longest time spent playing a racing game, the game being Gran Turismo 7, and the time being 90 friggin’ hours. He also holds the world record for the longest video game marathon spent playing a puzzle game, with 32 straight hours of Tetris.
Well, the next time I’m miserably powering through a metcon, I’ll be sure to remind myself it could be worse; I could be playing DDR for 144 hours. Bravo, sir. Bravo.
