Halloween Costume Helps Mario Speedrunner Shave 0.33 Seconds Off World Record

Key points

• Niftski, a 22-year-old speedrunner, broke the Super Mario Bros. any percent world record on Halloween, reducing the time from 4:54.332 to 4:54.299.
• The new record is only 0.003 seconds away from the theoretical perfect run, with Niftski noting that two frames were lost in the initial stretch of the game.
• Niftski held the previous record for warpless, glitchless, and any percent categories, having set the prior any percent record in August 2026.
• The runner credited his Mario costume and voice for reducing his anxiety, stating that the performance felt casual and not real.
• Super Mario Bros., released in 1985, remains a highly competitive speedrunning title, with the record dropping below five minutes around 2010.

Background

Niftski has been a dominant figure in the Super Mario Bros. speedrunning community, holding multiple category records. The game, originally released in 1985, continues to see active competition, with the world record falling below the five-minute mark around 2010 after Andrew Gardikis introduced a new blueprint for runners. This latest achievement follows Niftski's August 2026 record of 4:54.332, which he surpassed by a mere 0.33 seconds during a Halloween stream.

Why it matters

The achievement highlights the extreme precision and marginal gains possible in highly optimized speedrunning categories. By coming within two frames of a theoretical perfect run, Niftski demonstrates the current threshold of human skill in Super Mario Bros., a game that has been thoroughly analyzed for glitches and exploits since its 1985 release.

What to watch

Niftski will likely continue to compete in Super Mario Bros. speedrunning events, potentially attempting to close the remaining 0.33-second gap to a theoretical perfect run. The community may also see increased attention to the game's remaining optimization potential as the record approaches its theoretical limit.