A 36 hour VR session by Australian Jack McNee, of the YouTube Channel LPVR, has been confirmed by the Guinness World Records organization as the new record to beat for the “longest videogame marathon on a virtual reality game system.”
The marathon—which had McNee living for a day and a half in VR using an HTC Vive headset with the VR paint app Tilt Brush and his creativity to entertain him—took place back in April, and has now been confirmed on the Guinness World Records website. McNee’s time of 36 hours, 2 minutes, and 16 seconds blasted past the prior Guinness record, which, at the time, was 25 hours, 24 minutes, and 18 seconds, set by technology journalist Georgie Barrat.
During his record setting marathon, McNee had to stay in a single VR app, Tilt Brush. A smart choice considering the app allowed him to fend off boredom by drawing characters from The Simpsons, Adventure Time, Pokemon, and, thanks to his session being livestreamed, playing rounds of Hangman and Pictionary with viewers.
McNee was hand-fed and doesn’t appear to have slept throughout the marathon. Throughout the session, he also collected donations for The Reach Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to “[helping] children in need – physically, socially, and financially.”
For now, McNee must feel pretty good to be the only one in the world to be able to make the claim of holding the Guinness record for this feat, but I have a feeling that it won’t go unchallenged for long.