13-year-old becomes the first to 'beat' classic Tetris video game

Willis Gibson's feat of gaming came after he placed third at the 2023 Classic Tetris World Championships

A teenage boy in the United States is believed to have become the first human player to beat Tetris, 34 years after the classic video game was first released.

Thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson posted a video to his YouTube channel showing the moment he reached level 157, causing the game to freeze and crash.

Beating the game in just 38 minutes, Willis sat back into his chair in disbelief, saying: "I'm going to pass out, I can't feel my fingers."

The teenager - who goes by the name of Blue Scuti on YouTube - has played the game since he was 11, and has competed in several gaming tournaments, coming third at last year's Classic Tetris World Championships.

"When I started playing this game I never expected to ever crash the game, or beat it," he wrote on his YouTube channel.

Only a few years ago, players believed it was impossible to get further than level 29.

And, until Willis' level 157 win, only AI (artificial intelligence) had been able to reach the game's end.

Other gamers are now trying to beat the 13-year-old's record, with many filming their attempts on social media and video streaming sites.

The original version of Tetris came out on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Nintendo's Game Boy handheld console in 1989.

The game sees players arrange falling blocks into perfect horizontal lines, the further the player gets the faster the blocks fall.

Today, different versions of the game can be played across a range of games consoles and also on mobile phones.