A 13-year-old from Oklahoma, Willis Gibson, has achieved a remarkable feat by becoming the first human gamer to reach level 157 in the classic video game Tetris, nearly 40 years after its release.
In a video posted on YouTube, Gibson is seen expressing his astonishment and fatigue after the game crashed following his accomplishment. “I’m going to pass out, I can’t feel my fingers,” he said.
Gibson, using the screen name “Blue Scuti,” posted the 38-minute game’s video, stating in the description, “When I started playing this game I never expected to ever crash the game or beat it.”
The viral video has sparked renewed interest in Tetris, the iconic game created by a Soviet engineer in 1984 and popularized on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Tetris holds a world record with over 200 official variants released on at least 70 systems. The mobile version developed by Electronic Arts in 2006 has sold 100 million copies, making it the third best-selling video game of all time, as reported by a Hewlett Packard study last year.
The creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, revealed his instant addiction to the game after its creation. In a 2019 interview with CNN, he said, “I couldn’t stop myself from playing this prototype version because it was very addictive to put the shapes together.”
Tetris rapidly gained popularity and has maintained its enduring appeal. The Cold War-era story behind its inception was even adapted into a movie for Apple TV+ in March. a remarkable feat
Victor Lucas, a gaming expert involved in the television series Electric Playground, described Tetris as something that “hooks us in almost like a primitive state.” He emphasized that Tetris transcends video games, comparing it to universally understood games like checkers or chess, stating, “It’s just one of these Juggernaut play experiences that any human being can understand immediately and be consumed by eternally.”