Niftski set a new Super Mario Bros. any% (completing the game as fast as possible using any means) world record of 4:54.299 on Oct. 31, 2026, during a Halloween livestream while dressed as Mario, marking the first sub-4:54.3 time.
The 22-year-old American speedrunner wore a full Mario costume, performed the character’s voice, and tried to keep a mustache prop glued to his face during the five-hour stream. His mother bought the facial hair prop, and Niftski at times loathed the stunt. He committed to the bit around the middle of the broadcast and eventually spoke in Mario’s distinctive dialect while attempting the run. The stream was framed as a festive Halloween occasion.
Niftski said the costume made him not nervous at all and the run felt casual. After setting the record, he hollered, “WHAT IN THE WORLD I CANNOT BREAK CHARACTER!” He also exclaimed that it was Mario and that he could not break character.
The time lowered Niftski’s previous any% record of 4:54.332, which he set in August 2026, a few months before Halloween. In any%, runners complete the game as fast as possible using any means. Dexerto and ROCKSTARmedia put the improvement at 33 milliseconds, or 0.033 seconds, while Kotaku listed the cut at 0.33 seconds.
Niftski said just two frames separated his run from a theoretically perfect tool-assisted speedrun, where software plays the game frame by frame. “Only 2 frames (33 milliseconds) stand between this run and absolute perfection / TAS tie,” he wrote after the run.
He said the two lost frames came in the initial stretch of World 1. ROCKSTARmedia Network described the Halloween run as executing near-flawless sub-pixel movements and frame-rule manipulations across World 8 while dressed in full Mario attire. ROCKSTARmedia Network calls the 4:54.299 time the outer edge of human execution on the 1985 NES, with only two frame-rules remaining in the any% route, and says human skill has nearly caught up to tool-assisted performance on the 1985 NES.
Throughout the five-hour broadcast, he navigated Bowser’s hammer patterns and precise flagpole contacts in World 8-4 while vocalizing character dialect.
Niftski currently holds the warpless, glitchless, and any% Super Mario Bros. world records, and his leaderboard dominance made him a celebrity. Released in 1985, the game remains a hotbed of speedrunning activity. Andrew Gardikis broke the five-minute barrier around 2010 and restarted competitive play, and ROCKSTARmedia Network says runners have since examined each physics quirk, glitch, and sub-pixel alignment in the game. ROCKSTARmedia Network calls the game a foundational Nintendo platformer.
Niftski plays an emulated version mostly on keyboard using Nestopia UE, an emulator for the Nintendo Entertainment System, on PC, switching to a controller to complete level 8-4. The community briefly deemed this input switching illegal earlier in 2026, then reversed the decision in July 2026 after feedback with new ground rules; a community vote allowed input switching in October 2025, banned it in February 2026, and reversed the ban in July 2026.
Niftski maintains there is no advantage to using a keyboard, writing that it is debatably worse for speedrunning the game. Data-focused community members largely agree, though some believe keyboards violate the spirit of the run. “It is actually debatably worse for speedrunning this game,” he wrote in the description of the world record YouTube video.
His August 2026 run of 4:54.332 shaved exactly two frames off LeKukie’s record and left him four frames shy of perfection. Polygon.com says LeKukie’s run was six frames short of perfection before Niftski reclaimed the throne. Niftski gave up four frames on level 8-4 during the August run because of a mistimed pipe entry, a jump that was too high, and a missed acceleration boost in the final room.
Polygon.com says he nails almost every pixel-perfect technique except in 8-4. His heart rate reached 176 and spiked to 191 during a celebratory pop-off. He uses a live heart rate counter and later confirmed he has no heart condition.
Before the Halloween attempt, Niftski said, “Hopefully I don’t get this today because that would be very stupid,”
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