This Dresden, Ont., resident's Jenga world record is all it's stacked up to be

A Dresden, Ont., resident now holds a world record title for building a structure using the pieces from a classic family game.

Meindert de Boer broke the record for most Jenga blocks stacked on a single vertical Jenga block, using over 3000 pieces to create a structure measuring more than 100cm tall. 

He made the attempt in St. Catharines in June 2024, and Guinness World Records awarded him the official title last Friday. 

"It's not about being better than someone else, but it's about being able to compete in an almost Olympic-style way," de Boer said. "It feels like a good achievement."

To break the record, de Boer could only place one block at a time and his structure needed to stand by itself for 30 seconds. After six hours of building, he broke the record using 58 Jenga game boxes, which totals up to 3,132 blocks.

"It could be over in a second. That's the fun of it," said de Boer, adding that he had one close call where the structure wobbled at 39 boxes of blocks.

"That had my blood rising and I had to re-stabilize it," he said. "You've got to be quick."

Instead of building straight up, de Boer's structure took on a triangular shape at the bottom, before turning into a plus-sign shape near the top. 

"The triangle is the strongest shape of all the shapes," de Boer said. "The technique is basically like bricklaying. As long as each block is on top of the other, it holds everything in place."

de Boer prepared for the record by regularly practicing building, adding more boxes of blocks each time. He livestreams his at-home building attempts on social media, where he's known as The Professor Loves Balancing, and said followers send him Jenga boxes to add more pieces to his stacks.  

"I'm always trying different patterns and different shapes to see what works best," de Boer said.

His personal best Jenga stack used 82 boxes of blocks, so more record attempts are in his future, de Boer said, adding that he'll challenge anyone who beats his title, and is also interested in trumping himself.