Stacking a Legacy

It’s not common that a video game can transcend the digital realm to become a true phenomenon in the physical world.

Sure, many icons have been born from pixels, but how many games — especially those devoid of a character-driven narrative — have been so distinctive and addictive that you can use their names to describe a real-world action? There may only be one, and that game is Tetris.

Stacking cereal boxes in your pantry? Tetrising them.Trying to fit a Costco haul into your trunk? Tetrising it. Shuffling your collectibles around to make room for more? It’s a game of Tetris.

Created by Russian computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov and brought to the masses by Henk Rogers, a game developer and entrepreneur who recognized its potential global appeal, Tetris is one of the most recognizable video games on the planet. And in recent years, its explosive growth has created a lifestyle brand with a dedicated fandom rooted in community.

Tetris is rooted in shapes comprised of four connected squares, also known as Tetriminos. In the game, players shift and stack seven distinct Tetriminos on a play area known as the Matrix to complete horizontal rows resulting in a “line clear.” As players clear lines, the Tetriminos fall faster and the difficulty increases. As the cinematic version of Henk Rogers (played by Taron Egerton) says in the Apple Original Film Tetris, “It’s the perfect game.”

“The key to longevity for Tetris is its simplicity: Easy to play and very intuitive, it appeals to everyone,” explains Maya Rogers, Henk’s daughter, and CEO at The Tetris Co. “We’re incredibly humbled that in our 40th year since the game launched, our fanbase continues to grow. It’s challenging for any brand, let alone a video game, to transcend generations, and Tetris has become part of pop culture overall.”

Cross-platform evolution drives interest from new players each year. Just as bundling Tetris with the original Nintendo Game Boy created a frenzy during the 1989 launch, the release of Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch — complete with regular in-game events to keep things fresh — attracts new players every day, as does the mobile version of Tetris, which boasts more than 615 million downloads since its release in 2008.

Dedicated Tetris enthusiasts compete annually in the Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC), a fan-based tournament that uses the 1989 version of Tetris run on vintage Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) hardware. Last December, 13-year-old Willis “Blue Scuti” Gibson became the first known player to “beat” the game by essentially crashing its “kill screen,” a phenomenon that ends a game with no formal ending.

“The world witnessed Willis Gibson beat the game, and now players worldwide are pushing each other to do better to get a new world record,” says Eunha Kim, host of the TetrisGalTalk podcast. Kim credits the growing Tetris fandom for being unique among gamers. “It is different from other gaming communities because regardless of the competition-based games, players are always friendly and root for each other even when they are unsuccessful.”

Evan “Wingfryer” Phou, who founded the Tetris Interest website after discovering the 2016 CTWC Finals on YouTube, echoes that sentiment. “What makes the Tetris community special is its welcoming environment where people celebrate each other’s achievements,” he says.

As The Tetris Co. celebrates four decades of a game that came “From Russia with Fun!,” as the NES box touted in a cheeky nod to James Bond, licensing partners are in the mix to deliver must-have merchandise for Tetris fans from all walks of life.

“When we work with partners, we provide brand guidelines with elements, including the seven iconic Tetriminos synonymous with the game, but we also value partners who push the envelope,” Maya Rogers says.

Tetris first crossed over into fashion five years ago with a 35th-anniversary collaboration with Peacebird in China. That initial fashion collection cleared lines to make way for partnerships with New Era, PUMA, The Gap, H&M, Uniqlo, Zara, and more.

Earlier this month, Tetris partnered with 7-Eleven for a Tetris Takeover at more than 13,000 7-Eleven and Speedway locations that offered fans the chance to score exclusive merch, including T-shirts, hoodies, hats, stickers, keychains, and totes. But when it comes to “pushing the envelope,” as Maya Rogers says, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more unique piece of Tetris merch than the Limited Edition Slurpee x Tetris Handheld Game Device that My Arcade developed to mark a milestone year: It’s shaped like a Tetris-branded Slurpee cup! The console is limited to 20,000 units in the U.S. and 10,000 in Canada.

This year kicked off in a big way with Scopely welcoming Tetris into the world of Stumble Guys, followed by a giant game of Tetris played on the Exosphere at the Sphere in Las Vegas during CES. This month, Tetris joined forces with the American Red Cross to encourage fans to “Drop In. Give Blood. Play On.” while scoring an exclusive T-shirt.

On June 6, fans will celebrate World Tetris Day, commemorating the birth of the first version of the Tetris game that Pajitnov developed for a Soviet PC known as the Electronika 60. Tetris Effect (2018) honors the momentous occasion with a super-secret “1984” level accessed via code: 06061984. The following day, CTWC will move to its new location at the SoCal Retro Gaming Expo in Pasadena, California, where fans will compete through June 9.

As the 40th anniversary of Tetris kicks into high gear this summer, additional unique collabs and merch drops will fall from the sky like Tetriminos.

“We don’t have characters so it allows for a bit more freedom, and we are truly interested to see how the brand can transcend its gaming roots,” Maya Rogers adds. “Ultimately, the most successful collaborations are the ones that spark the same joy you feel when you play Tetris.”

Supreme will join the party with the Supreme Tetris Mini, a transparent handheld game, following the global viral success of a playable Chicken McNugget Tetris game from McDonald’s China last year. Meanwhile, G Fuel will refresh its line of Tetris-branded products with new packaging, the return of its Tetris Blast rainbow candy-flavored powdered energy formula, and more.

Fans can also fuel their gameplay with a 24-ounce, glow-in-the-dark G Fuel x Tetris Shaker Cup, which features a 40th anniversary design that reads “Stacking Fun Since 1984!”

What would a 40th-anniversary celebration be without some details on how Tetris will blaze a colorful path into the future? The Tetris Co. teamed up with an unnamed “leading game developer” to create a new, cross-platform Tetris game that the company touts as “truly special.”

With billions of Tetris games played online every year and more than 520 million copies of Tetris sold worldwide since its launch four decades ago, it’s a safe bet that fans of all ages eagerly await news on how the new game will continue to stack up!