CHAPTER 11

Games People Play

Games play an important role in every culture around the world—and every single one has the potential to be given a Guinness World Records twist. From exchanging secret gifts to picking up sticks, and en-masse dancing, this chapter is all about superlative recreation. Who says playtime can’t also be record time?

KEEP DANCING

The most people participating in a dance video game is 10,730, boogying to “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love Again” by Usher. The epic dance-off was organized by Starfloor and was led by a choreographer at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, on November 26, 2011.

FREEZE-FRAME

Hold that pose! The largest game of musical statues was achieved by 1,079 participants at an event organized by Danone Finland at the Helsinki Exhibition Center in Finland on April 25, 2010. Musical statues is similar to musical chairs: players dance to music and when the music stops, everyone has to freeze. If you keep moving or don’t stop fast enough, you’re kicked off the dance floor!

CHRISTMAS CHEER

On December 4, 2013, the students in Lexington, Kentucky, had a serious case of holiday spirit! Feeling festive, 1,463 pupils (pictured) from Lexington Catholic High School and local middle schools participated in the largest Secret Santa game in a single location, achieving the record while spreading joy. Meanwhile, the largest Secret Santa game in multiple locations was attended by 4,557 people in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, as part of an event organized by Globe Telecom, Inc. (Philippines) on December 18, 2011.

RINGS AROUND THE COMPETITION

Demonstrating a Frodo Baggins–like determination to destroy the One Ring, William Stone, Bryan Erwin, and Christopher Groetzinger took part in the longest trading card marathon from December 27, 2002, to January 1, 2003. The trio played a total 154 rounds of the Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game over a period of 128 hours to earn themselves a very “precious” record.

GATHER ’EM UP!

The largest game of pick-up sticks could have been called “pick-up poles”! It consisted of 30 supersize “sticks”—seven yellow, seven red, seven blue, eight green, and one black—each measuring 29 feet, 10.3 inches long. Four teams of 112 children took to the playing fields of St. John’s Preparatory School in Harare, Zimbabwe, to get involved with this scaled-up version of the classic game on July 21, 2007.

CHESS WITH A TWIST

The most games of shogi played simultaneously is 1,574 at Tokyo Big Sight, an event arranged by the Japan Shogi Association, Japan Tobacco Inc., and TableMark Co. Ltd., on November 18, 2012. The two-player strategy board game is considered by some as a Japanese version of chess but players can keep captured pieces and then use them as their own.

GO FISH

The world’s largest game of kingyosukui involved a tank that was 330 feet, 8.5 inches long, containing 60,000 goldfish, 15,000 medaka (Japanese killifish), and 2,199 gallons of water. Kingyosukui is a traditional Japanese game, often played at summer festivals, in which players gather fish using a special scooper. The record game was held in Kanagawa, Japan, on August 4, 2002, and was organized by Masaaki Tanaka from the Guild of Fujisawa Ginza Doyokai.