Hungarian Gamer Grooves 144 Hours Straight to Smash DDR Marathon Record!

Szabolcs Csépe, a 34-year-old man from Budapest, Hungary, has made history by setting a new world record for the longest video game marathon. He played Dance Dance Revolution, a rhythm-based music game, for an incredible six days. During this time, Szabolcs danced to more than 3000 songs and burned over 22,000 calories. Known as GrassHopper on his gaming channels, Szabolcs spent six months preparing for this challenge. His preparation included physical training, especially focusing on his legs and glutes, and following a strict diet plan to keep his energy up. He told BBC News that playing Dance Dance Revolution is always fun for him, but doing it for so long was 'tediously joyful. ' Guinness World Records has officially recognized his achievement.

Dance Dance Revolution is a Japanese video game series that first appeared in arcades in 1998. Players stand on a dance platform and step on colored arrows in time with the music and visual cues. The game has a large catalog of songs and has become popular worldwide. Over the years, Dance Dance Revolution has inspired many spin-off games and versions for home consoles. It is also used in schools in the UK and US as part of exercise programs to help students stay active. In 2004, Norway even recognized Dance Dance Revolution as an official sporting event. More recently, the game has become popular in the esports community, with players competing in tournaments around the world.

Szabolcs was motivated to break the record after watching Carrie Swidecki from the US play Just Dance for over 138 hours in 2015. Szabolcs, who works in IT engineering, is no stranger to gaming marathons. He previously set records for playing a Naruto game for 28 hours and 11 minutes, and a puzzle game called Tetris Effect for 32 hours and 32 minutes. In 2023, he played Gran Turismo 7 for 90 hours, earning three more endurance records. Szabolcs has been playing Dance Dance Revolution for nearly 20 years and got his nickname GrassHopper because he was always jumping around as a child. During his marathon, he was allowed to take breaks: for every hour of dancing, he earned a ten-minute rest, which he could save up to sleep for an hour or two. Despite the challenge, Szabolcs said that if someone else breaks his record, he will definitely try again to reclaim his title. He is proud of his accomplishment and loves the combination of gaming and dancing.