Bruce Dias 
Humans play games for many different reasons. When these become extremely competitive and no side wants to concede defeat, these sports and events can last for record amounts of time. In this article, we discuss the longest games ever played.
Everyone loves to play games. We do it as a pastime, to keep fit, some people do it as an occupation, and we even do it psychologically in our relationships with others. But what happens when those games become a battle of will, where no party ever wants to concede defeat? This can give rise to the longest bouts ever to take place. Below, we detail some of the longest games ever played.
Poker
The longest poker game to have taken place lasted eight years, five months, and three days. It took place in the town of Tombstone, at the Birdcage Theatre.
To put it in context, this was in the days of the old west, in a rough and ready frontier town, which was most well known for the shoot-out at the OK Corral. It was a high-stakes game, designed to attract the clientele who had been prospecting and captaining industry on the frontier. Essentially, the rich people with nothing else to do but work and gamble.
Of course, people could buy in and out of the game itself, so the players changed. The longest stretch at a poker table by one individual was in 2010. Phil Laak, an Irish-American professional player, managed to go 115 hours straight at the Bellagio Casino in Atlantic City.
The record for online play is currently unknown. In fact, in the digital age of modern online casinos, very few records are held. Many players of these games value security and anonymity, which is quite different to the way the most famous poker players of the world play.
The industry has responded to this by creating designated cryptocurrency casinos with unique crypto casino games, for those who value safety and security. Not only do they have the robustness of blockchain technology and payments behind them, but they also have all the games you would expect from a quality casino. This includes everything from slot games to poker tables, where you can play for as long as your bankroll will let you.
Tennis
Only two professional tennis matches have ever lasted over seven hours. Astonishingly, the one that holds the record was played over three days and racked up a healthy 11-hour and five-minute run time. It was played by John Isner from the USA and Nicolas Mahut from France.
At the end of the first day, the match was halted because of fading light. This took it into day two, which was delayed due to a faulty scoreboard. The match was then halted once again because of fading light. This took it to day three, where Isner won the final set. It was four and a half hours longer than the previous record. The match was so famous, that a fictional account of it was made into a movie titled 7 Days in Hell.
Chess
The game of chess can take time when anyone plays. But when you put two of history’s best players together, it can reach a stalemate. At the World Chess Championship in 1984, Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov faced off in a match that lasted for five whole months. This was a culmination of forty draws. The game was abandoned due to health reasons. A 1985 rematch then saw Kasparov become the victor.
Baseball
Major League Baseball is the pinnacle of US and world baseball leagues. To date, its longest recorded bout was in 1920. It took place between the Brooklyn Robins and the Boston Braves.
However, the longest-recorded game in professional history was between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings. It began on Saturday, April 18th at 8.25 pm. Even this start time was delayed due to problems with the stadium lights.
The game continued throughout the night and into the morning of easter Sunday. The reason for this was that the umpire, Dennis Cregg, had a copy of the rulebook which failed to mention a cutoff time of 12.50 am. Teams would come close to winning, but the other would come back drastically. The clubhouse ran out of food, and players began to burn fences and bats to make fires to protect themselves from the icy cold.
By 4 am, it was noted that the players were crazy with exhaustion. The manager of Pawtucket managed to call the President of the League at some point in the night, and he ordered the game to be stopped after the next inning. In total, it lasted a grand eight hours and twenty-five minutes.
The Longest Videogame
The longest videogame session ever has not yet been recorded. However, some games have extremely long running times. These are the hours you must play if you follow the main story alone, from start to completion.
To date, the record for this is Persona 5 Royal. Created by Atlus, it is a Japanese role-playing game. An extended version of Persona 5, its main storyline clocks in at a princely 101 hours. It has been a fan favourite for some time and is considered one of the best games in its genre ever to be made.
A close second is 98 hours for Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. It is also an extended version of the game Monster Hunter Freedom 2, created by developers Capcom. If you include all its side quests and smaller campaigns, the game has around 459 hours of gameplay for fans.
The need to win is something human and built into all of us. Yet these examples go beyond that desire, pushing the body and mind into states of endurance. Of course, games don’t always have to be like this. Most people do them to relax, entertain or keep the mind and body healthy. However, sometimes there is also a great skill in knowing when to call it quits.
