A new record was set in Classic Tetris during the recent Tetris World Championships, with one player scoring the highest amount of points in that game. This occurred recently at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, which returned after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tetris, which has been around since 1988, was more of a game players would relax with; decades later, it has a close-knit competitive community of players who get together and try to break each other's high scores.
After Tetris debuted on other platforms, it made its way to Nintendo's Game Boy and the NES, where it found more success. Unfortunately, the creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajintov, a Soviet software engineer, dealt with legal issues with Tetris. Despite his title becoming one of the most popular and best-selling of all time, Pajintov didn't even see a single penny through royalties of Tetris western release until 1996. Pajintov regained control back from Nintendo; and he licensed the rights to Electronic Arts for a 15-year period, which saw him finally make income from Tetris.
The recent Classic Tetris World Championships saw EriclCX vs. Fractal in a nail-biting game during the Gold Bracket Finals, resulting in ErclCX scoring the highest points and getting to the highest level. His final score was 2.94 million, exciting the crowd and commentators who praised how his "strategy of survival is still holding true." EriclCX is a YouTuber who has made quite a name for himself in the world of competitive Tetris and is only a senior in high school. This past summer, he broke his record by scoring 6 million points in the NES version and captured glitched colors on the NTSC version. He isn't the only young champ out there; back in 2018 a16-year-old also made Tetris history.
Since Tetris became a household name among gamers of all ages, gamers have found creative ways to include it in other titles. A YouTuber designed a giant version of the Tetris board in Minecraft, which was only made possible by how much creativity players have, thanks to how the game was designed. Ironically Minecraft shares a similar block-style design reminiscent of Tetris blocks. Tetris's continued popularity no doubt has to do with how addictive it can be, trying to get as high a score as possible, which is why the competitive community is thriving years later.
For those who prefer competition with less stress and more fun, Nintendo came out with Tetris 99 for Nintendo Online Subscribers. It launched online in 2019 and sees 99 players compete against each other with a twist. Gamers can send attacks against one another during gameplay while still playing the classic game of Tetris. Tetris 99 also rotates different game themes players can obtain during Maximus Cup events. While the original Tetris may have had extremely humble beginnings, one thing is sure, the love for this simple game will never fade.