Streamer’s quest to say “Mario” one million times comes to a close

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2021-12-17 14:12 JST)

Nicro, a streamer on Twitch, has successfully said the word “Mario” one million times. Starting on December 1, Nicro began streaming himself repeatedly saying “Mario.” And on the 16^th, the one million mark was finally reached.

Nicro is a streamer from Canada that’s known for streaming titles in the Mario series. In March of this year, he took a break from streaming and appeared out of nowhere roughly 9 months later, on December 1. The comeback looked like some kind of human experiment as Nicro sat in front of the camera repeatedly uttering “Mario.”

The quota was originally set by having one bit equal saying “Mario” once, a $1 donation equal saying “Mario” 100 times, and a subscription equal saying “Mario” 250 times. It seemed like some sort of self-punishment for making fans wait so long while he took a break from streaming.

But the pace of donations and subscriptions far outpaced the speed Nicro could say “Mario,” and about a week into the journey, the difference between how many times he had said it and the quota was roughly 200,000.

It was a pretty entertaining broadcast with Nicro also responding to requests in the chat, and occasionally repeating different things like “Wario,” “Logan Paul,” and “Chris Pratt,” along with other nonsensical utterances.

But with there being no sign of Nicro ever catching up to the growing quota, the limit was set at one million on the 11^th day of the challenge. And on December 16, with roughly 500 Marios remaining, Nicro’s mother appeared with other family and friends and formed a line behind him ready to celebrate. I wonder how his mother felt after watching her son repeatedly say “Mario” for two weeks. After that, Nicro picked up the pace from 4 Marios per second to 5 Marios per second (according to my measurements).

The background music was set to “Break Free (Lead the Way),” the ending music in Super Mario Odyssey. The song about escaping to freedom fit the mood as Nicro himself was also grasping for his own freedom from his Mario challenge. And with the one millionth “Mario,” everyone cheered.

Since the challenge began, 334 hours 55 minutes and 54 seconds had passed. Removing breaks, the challenge stretched on for roughly 14 days. Whether from exhaustion or joy, Nicro fell to the floor and his mother walked over to him. He then gave a speech where he thanked his viewers and friends before adding, “but most importantly, I want to thank Mario.”

*The finale begins at 5:35:00

Behind Nicro’s efforts is surly a love for Mario. While the content of the challenge itself is ridiculous, for some reason I was moved during the climax of it all. I hope Nicro takes a nice rest and stays on the lookout for any side effects after saying “Mario” so many times.