Twitch Plays Pokemon wins final badge, continues to endgame

Players of the massively multiplayer streaming phenomenon known as Twitch Plays Pokemon have earned the eighth and final badge in Pokemon Red and are heading into the game's final stages.

Twitch Plays Pokemon is the work of an anonymous Australian programmer who set out to create an alternate version of SaltyBet, a Twitch stream that focuses on viewer interaction. In Twitch Plays Pokemon, viewers input chat commands to control the game or initiate its newly added anarchy or democracy modes. Anarchy enables chat-based commands to be input immediately, while democracy allows users to vote and act collectively.

Players have captured 29 Pokemon and seen 118 over the course of about two weeks. Opposing players have released 21 Pokemon, 12 of which were lost during day 10, also known by the community as "Bloody Sunday." With Viridian gym leader Giovanni defeated, all that remains for players is to best the Elite Four — the game's most powerful trainers — and their rival. The current lineup includes a Zapdos, Lapras and Omanyte, which was revived from its fossil form on day 11.

A document tracking the stream's progress is currently holding a poll on whether or not players should return to Cinnabar Island to level before facing the Elite Four.

Twitch Plays Pokemon has skyrocketed to more than 30 million views total and more than 10 million button presses from 600,000 unique visitors. Since its inception, Twitch Plays Pokemon has spawned several copycats, including Twitch Plays Pokemon Plays Tetris, Twitch Plays Pokemon: Crystal Version and, recently, Twitch Plays The Legend of Zelda.

Watch the stream for Twitch Plays Pokemon below, or check out our episode of Friends List for more of the highlights.