A Canadian man named Kory Breaden from Nanaimo, British Columbia, recently broke the world record for the longest video game marathon by playing Call of Duty: War Zone for 145 hours straight on his PS5. But he hasn’t yet clinched the official Guinness Book of World Records title yet.
The record still belongs to Carrie Swidecki who played Just Dance 2015 in 2020 for 138 hours and 34 minutes. She played the game with witnesses at Otto’s Video Games and More, in Bakersfield, California from 11 to 17 July 2015.
What it takes to play the longest video game marathon
According to CTV News (cited below),
“The biggest challenges he had to overcome were technical glitches like his Zoom meeting that was used for his witnesses crashed 24 hours into playing and Breaden had to fix the problem while matches were reloading. For every 60 minutes of play, Breaden was allowed a 10-minute break which could be accumulated into longer breaks…His achievement has been submitted to the Guinness World Records for official verification.”
The Guinness Book of World Records has strict guidelines for video game marathons to ensure fair play and safety for the participants. These include mandatory rest breaks, witnesses to verify gameplay, and rules against cheating or exploiting glitches in the game.
Braedon reported that he believe he only slept for around 11.5 hours throughout the marathon. His energy came from high-protein snacks. Alas, towards the end, he switched over to “eating high-carb greasy junk food like McDonald’s fries that kept me going.”
Struggling to make it
He even suffered an injury during play. After 90 hours, his left thumb became swollen and bruised. But he continued through the pain.
Braeden admits to nearly nodding off many times toward the end and watching the John Wick movie series in the background to stay alert.
“To have all the gunshots and everything go off while I was playing, that seemed to help me power through the last couple hours,” he said. Braeden hopes eventually clinching the world record will actually open some doors for him in the gaming world and look good on his resume.
According to CTV, “Breaden says he broke other records while playing, including longest time playing a battle royale event; longest time playing a Call of Duty game; and longest time playing a first-person shooter game.”
However, the Guinness Book of World Records has yet to accept the results. It’s unclear why that is. After this feat, he slept for 18 straight hours.