A 16-year-old from the US appears to have become the first person to beat the game of Tetris, clearing the final level and causing it to reset to level 0.

Tetris has been around for a while, so you might have assumed it would be complete by now. After all, it’s not like a game of Zelda or Skyrim where you can complete all the side quests and put off the main quest until long after you’ve lost all interest in completing the main game. 

For years, people believed that level 29 – where the speed maxes out – was the final level of the game. However, after decades of experimenting with different methods, dedicated gamers were able to beat it. Despite progress through the levels, nobody made it to an end screen. Instead, as the levels went on, they begin to glitch, turning the bricks unusual colors.

In 2021, programmer Greg Cannon created StackRabbit, a Tetris-playing artificial intelligence (AI) program that was able to go even further through the glitchy levels. The AI went past level 235 (which lasted for 800 lines instead of around 10) to level 237, at which point the game stopped functioning, freezing entirely.

In lieu of a screen informing you that you have won Tetris, the community deemed that reaching this kill screen was basically completing the game. In January, one teenager made headlines for reaching this kill screen without any AI assistance, and was deemed the first person to beat the game. But, playing on a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version of the game which prevents the level 155 glitch, 16-year-old Michael Artiaga managed to get to the game’s highest level, level 255, and complete it.

After over an hour of play, Artiaga – who goes by dogplayingtetris on YouTube – completed level 255 and was returned unceremoniously to “level 00”. 

“Oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God I actually got rebirthed,” Artiaga said after completing the impressive feat, adding in a few more “oh my Gods” for good measure. 

“Am I dreaming, bro?” he continued, adding “it’s actually over”.

The teenager continued to play the game with his score intact, eventually finishing on 29.4 million points.

“I’m so glad that game is over, bro, I never want to play this game again,” he added, once the game was finally finished. “I was starting to lose my mind.”