Guinness Book of RecordsA Hungarian has set a new record for the longest video game marathon by playing rhythm-music game Dance Dance Revolution for six days.
Szabolcs Cszepe, from Budapest, performed more than 3,000 songs and burned more than 22,000 calories in his quest to get into the record books.
The 34-year-old, known as GrassHopper on his gaming channels, said training for the marathon took six months and included physical training focusing on “legs and buttocks” as well as diet.
“Playing DDR is always fun for me,” he told BBC News, “so this challenge can best be described as tediously joyful.”
His feat was officially recognized according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Dance Dance Revolution is a Japanese video game series first released to arcades in 1998.
Players stand on a dance platform or mat and kick colored arrows to score points in time using visual cues and music from a catalog of songs.
The series has spawned dozens of spin-offs in arcades and many more on home consoles.
Gaming has also become popular as a way to keep fit and can be incorporated into school exercise programs in the UK and US.
In 2004, the series was even recognized as an official sporting event in Norway.
The game has grown in popularity in the eSports community recently, with players from all over the world competing in official and fan-organized tournaments.
Getty ImagesMr Chepe said he was inspired to try the challenge after watching the attempt of previous winner Carrie Swidecki from the US, who spent just over 138 hours playing Just Dance in 2015.
But the avid gamer, who works in the IT industry, had already broken several records before accomplishing this dance feat.
In 2021, he completed the longest video game marathon playing a Naruto game (28 hours, 11 minutes, 32 seconds while playing Narutimetto Akuseru 2) and the longest video game marathon playing a puzzle game (32 hours, 32 minutes, 32 seconds while playing Tetris Effect).
And in 2023, a 90-hour gaming session of Gran Turismo 7 earned him three more endurance test awards, including the longest video game marathon in a racing simulator.
Mr Chepe, who was nicknamed GrassHopper as a child because he was “always jumping”, told the BBC he had been playing Dance Dance Revolution for almost 20 years but Marathon was a far cry from dancing in the park.
Mr Chepe said he was allowed to take breaks “for some well-earned rest time”, with one hour of dancing giving him a ten-minute break which could be saved up to allow him to sleep for an hour or two.
Despite the enormous effort, the world record holder added that if the record is broken in the future, he will “definitely come back” to defend his dance crown.
