In a groundbreaking moment for the iconic video game Tetris, 16-year-old Michael “dogplayingtetris” Artiaga has achieved something no one else has in the nearly 35-year history of the game. During a livestream on Twitch, Artiaga managed to push the game to its absolute limits, becoming the first player ever to trigger a full reset of the level counter—a legendary feat known as the “rebirth.”
In just over 80 minutes, Artiaga reached and completed level 255, clearing an astonishing 3,300 lines in the process. This historic accomplishment marked the first time any player had forced Tetris to roll its level counter back to zero, a long-rumored occurrence that had never been confirmed until now.
As the game reset to the slow first level, Artiaga’s reaction was one of pure disbelief. “Oh, my goodness. There’s no way. There’s no way,” he said during the stream. Overcome with excitement, Artiaga paced around his room, flopped onto his bed, and laughed in shock at what he’d just achieved.
“Oh my god, dude. I actually can’t keep it together,” he added as the game continued.
Though Artiaga’s feat is unique, he’s not the first to “beat” Tetris in a technical sense. Earlier this year, Willis “Blue Scuti” Gibson made it to level 157 before the game’s 1989 code crashed on him. As Tetris was never designed to handle levels beyond 29, reaching the 138-157 range often results in memory overflow issues, leading to what players call a “kill screen”—an unintentional end to the game due to overwhelming glitches. Gibson’s run, which ended on such a kill screen, was regarded as “beating” the game, albeit with a crash.
Artiaga’s success was partially due to using a modified version of NES Tetris, specifically designed to prevent a crash, while still maintaining legitimacy in the competitive gaming scene.
Nevertheless, the run was far from smooth. At level 235, Artiaga faced an incredibly difficult round that lasted 20 minutes, with him having to clear a staggering 810 lines just to proceed. Despite the monumental victory, Artiaga appeared ready to retire from the game.
“I’m so glad that game is over, bro. I never want to play this game again,” he said after his historic run.