One Guy Just Finished Streaming For 144 Hours

144 hours. That’s six days of streaming. And no, it’s not the kind of thing you should attempt to do on a regular or even irregular basis. Going without sleep is bad.

Neal, who streams under the name Koibu, has a bit of experience with this though. He’s completed a range of marathon streams over 48 hours, 72 hours, 90 hours and even one 120 hour marathon before — and now, the Vietnamese-based streamer has another record to his name.

I’ve always found something appealing about doing a six or eight hour stretch for a charity stream or combined marathon, but the prospect of doing something over 144 hours without a solid day or two of sleep is mind-boggling. Perhaps even quite literally.

Well, that’s what Neal (aka. Koibu) has just done.

It all came to an end in the second last round of a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive match, a match that appropriately his team won in the end. But other games included a string of party games, D&D encounters and other role-playing games, as well as some online Cards Against Humanity, Dota 2, Divinity: Original Sin, StarCraft 2, Civilization 5 and Rome 2: Total War.

Koibu’s of the belief that “there is zero scientific proof that not sleeping for this amount of time is dangerous if you take the right precautions”, according the FAQ prepared for the 144 marathon. Those precautions included a special diet — “actually healthy food”, although precisely what types of food he ate weren’t outlined — cold showers, regular short breaks, brief exercise, being slapped in the face by his wife, and regularly slapping away mosquitoes as is part and parcel of life in Vietnam.

The FAQ answers other menial, but crucial, questions when it comes to completing a marathon of this length:

Q: What’s the kill counter?

A: How many mosquito’s he killed during the stream. He lives in Vietnam.



Q: Is this an official record?

A: No, due to the logistics and costs involved no officials were contacted. However, we have found no information that any other Twitch streamer has streamed for a longer time solo.



Q: Then how do we know that he really did it?

A: You can check the vods on his stream and you will see that the total stream time ads up to 144 hours. (After the marathon is finished)



Q: Is Neal always this bad at CS:GO?

A: He’s usually slightly better at CS:GO. Seriously. (Slightly)



Q: Did he shower?

A: Yes? Why wouldn’t he have showered?



Q: How long will be sleep after this?

A: About two days, in two sessions of 8-12 hours, Neal guesses.



Q: Did he fall asleep at all?

A: Yes, technically he did microsleep. These are very minor and very shallow periods of sleeping, usually only seconds long. Nothing a shout or a shower can’t cure.

The only significant break, apart from the occasional technical issues with the stream and Open Broadcaster Software crashing, was to participate in scheduled Dungeons & Dragons sessions on the Misscliks stream, but everything else was broadcast on Koibu’s channel.

I can’t even imagine trying to avoid being supply blocked after 24 hours of proper sleep, let alone 110. God.

The stream follows on from Koibu’s promise at TwitchCon late September. “You’ve got to make sure your pre-marathon stream prep is good, you have to have a lot of sleep for many days up to there, you have to have all your assets ready, you have to have people to watch your back,” he said on the TwitchCon live stage. Another rule was to minimise sunlight as much as possible, since the natural rise and fall of the sun — according to Koibu — makes it much harder to stay awake.

A large amount of Koibu’s preparation for D&D sessions was also exposed to the stream, which is interesting if you’ve never seen that aspect of role-playing before. Koibu also recently did a tour of 18 cities where he streamed at various fans’ houses, broadcasting D&D as he travelled.

A Q&A about it all is currently running over at Reddit, although there aren’t any replies as of yet; presumably Koibu is catching up on some well-needed rest. If you want to watch someone wax and wane as they fall-off and drift through various stages of sleeplessness, all the archived videos are up.

As the FAQ says, it’s not an official record — officials weren’t available — but it’s still an incredible accomplishment. Hell, I’ve been struggling to do 8 hour sessions on the weekend. Now imagine doing that for six days running. Blimey.