From a six-digit cap to a crashed cartridge: fifteen years of Tetris records

Asked:

“Find me the major records made in tetris speedrunning theoughout its history. Mention who made the record and why was it special.”

Eight landmark NES Tetris records from Harry Hong’s verified 999,999 maxout in 2009 to Michael Artiaga’s first “rebirth” past level 255 in October 2024, plus a side branch of four 40-line Sprint records (19.68 s in 2013 down to 13.430 s on TETR.IO). Historical importance, not current-holder status, is the selection criterion — most of these marks were later surpassed.

The classic NES ladder: highest level reached, by year

hypertapping erarolling eracrash-avoidance mod■ grey band: level 29 “kill screen”, assumed unbeatable 1989–2011

Side branch: 40-line Sprint, a literal race against the clock

seconds to clear 40 lines — platform-specific records, not one universal category

Findings

Only AI had ever crashed the game before Blue Scuti: Greg Cannon’s StackRabbit bot reached level 237 before crashing in 2021, two years before a human forced a crash at level 157. tomshardware.com

Artiaga’s rebirth run ended at 29,486,164 points, breaking the previous score world record by more than 12 million — but it ran on a crash-avoidance version, so it is not directly comparable to Blue Scuti’s unmodified crash. ign.com

Harry Hong’s 2009 maxout is best described as first verified, not first ever: Thor Aackerlund carried older, undocumented claims of surviving the kill screen. therainfallsdownonportlandtown.blogspot.com

EricICX’s 6,492,500-point August 2022 CTM game beat the previous competition record, set three months earlier, by over 4.3 million points — the clearest measure of rolling’s ceiling. en.wikipedia.org

Glossary

MaxoutReaching 999,999 points, the six-digit cap of the NES score display.

Kill screenLevel 29, where pieces fall too fast for standard input — long assumed the practical end of the game.

HypertappingVibrating a thumb on the d-pad to press faster than the game’s built-in auto-shift.

RollingDrumming fingers on the back of the controller into a finger on the d-pad; faster and more sustainable than hypertapping.

Game crashA software failure at very high levels that freezes unmodified NES Tetris — distinct from the level 29 difficulty wall.

RebirthClearing level 255 so the level counter rolls over to 0; requires a crash-avoidance version of the game.

40-line SprintClearing exactly 40 lines as fast as possible on modern clients; timing and physics differ by platform.

The records, row by row

Date	Player	Version / category	Achievement	Technique	Why it mattered	Status / caveat	Source
2009	Harry Hong	NES (NTSC)	999,999 maxout at level 28	DAS / classic play	Foundational elite benchmark; score display caps at six digits	First verified/documented — older undocumented claims exist	reddit.com
2011	Thor Aackerlund	NES (NTSC)	First recorded level 30	Hypertapping	Proved the level 29 kill screen was a control limit, not an end	Surpassed 2018	youtu.be
2018	Joseph Saelee	NES (NTSC)	First level 31	Hypertapping	Broke Thor's seven-year ceiling; made post-29 play repeatable	Surpassed by himself and others	en.wikipedia.org
Feb 2019	Joseph Saelee	NES (NTSC)	First verified level 33	Hypertapping	Peak of the hypertapping era's steady climb	Surpassed 2020–21	tetris.wiki
2020–21	Cheez	NES (NTSC)	Pioneered rolling; first level 40	Rolling	Rolling gave inputs over twice as fast as hypertapping and opened the modern explosion	Historical first; long surpassed	arstechnica.com
Aug 2022	Eric “EricICX” Tolt	NES (NTSC), CTM competition	6,492,500 points; first level 146	Rolling	Beat previous competition score record by over 4.3 million	Later surpassed by rebirth-run scores	en.wikipedia.org
Dec 21, 2023	Willis “Blue Scuti” Gibson	NES (NTSC), unmodified	First human game crash: level 157, 1,511 lines	Rolling	Only AI had crashed the game before; commonly called “beating” Tetris	Crash ≠ old level 29 kill screen	arstechnica.com
Oct 6, 2024	Michael “dogplayingtetris” Artiaga	NES, crash-avoidance mod	First rebirth: past level 255 to level 0; 4,216 lines; 29.4M points	Rolling	Showed the level cycle loops — theoretically endless play	Modified ROM; not comparable to unmodified crash	en.wikipedia.org
Aug 2013	Keroco	40-line Sprint	19.68 s	Modern stacking	First widely reported sub-20 Sprint	Guinness-recognised; long surpassed	guinnessworldrecords.com
2023	fortissim2	40-line Sprint (Jstris)	13.928 s	Modern stacking	First ever sub-14 overall Sprint	Platform-specific	harddrop.com
Aug 2024	WestL	40-line Sprint (TETR.IO)	13.430 s — ≈7.52 pps, 101 pieces, perfect finesse	Modern stacking	Cited as world-record tier by a 2026 source	Platform-specific, not universal	tetrio.wiki.gg

Method: milestones assembled from six result sets (about 640 source rows of news articles, wikis and transcripts), research gathered September 2, 2026 from live web results. NES records assume the NTSC version unless noted; Sprint times are platform-specific (Guinness/console, Jstris, TETR.IO) and not one universal record. Levels measure the in-game level counter; scores are points shown or reported past the display cap. Intermediate records (levels 34–38, 95, interim sprint marks) were cut for space.

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