New Donkey Kong world record set, and there's not much room left for another

The Donkey Kong world record has changed hands once more, this time going to a player who held it for only a few hours in September.

Wes Copeland's 1,190,000, recorded on Jan. 3, makes him the new king of Kong, pushing rival Robbie Lakeman into second place. In September, the two dueled at the Donkey Kong Online Open 2015, with Copeland's record score of 1,170,500 lasting only six hours before Lakeman replied with 1,172,100.

Both scores were later certified, but Copeland effectively had no chance to celebrate being the official world record holder. Now he does. Lakeman immediately attempted to take the record back but fell short and, in a statement to his viewers on Twitch, Lakeman announced at least a temporary retirement while he "focus[es] on things that should really matter to me at this point.

"Wes, definitely enjoy it, you'll have it for a while," Lakeman said. "I had the record longer than I thought I would. ... This was an outlet for a while, but I've gotten where I want to be with it. The torch has now been passed."

DonkeyKongBlog, which first reported the new record, notes than an analysis by ESPN's FiveThirtyEight blog pegs the theoretical maximum high score for Donkey Kong somewhere above 1,200,000. That doesn't leave much room for another assault on the mark, though the world record holder on emulation, Dean Saglio, scored 1,206,800 in 2013.

You can watch Copeland's record setting run below. It came at another Donkey Kong Open, and netted him $2,000 in winnings.

Watch live video from WesCopeland on www.twitch.tv