California Man Becomes First To "Beat" Bejeweled 2

You may not have thought it possible, and PopCap probably didn't either, but as of March 23, 2009 (and PopCap's official confirmation today) California native Mike Leyde is the first person to ever "beat" Bejeweled 2 by reaching the highest score possible in the addictive casual game.

As part of their celebration of Bejeweled's 10 year anniversary, PopCap posted a story about the news. Last year, Leyde hit over 2 billion points, finally topping out Bejeweled 2's in-game score at 2,147,482,575. For those hoping to catch up, it took Leyde a grand total of 2,205 hours and 51 minutes and nearly 5 million gems. Technically, that may make Bejeweled 2 one of the longest games ever.

For Leyde's part, he's been playing the game for an incredibly long time, having originally discovered it in 2005. He explains:

"The game caught my interest, and as I started playing I found myself trying to better my score every time I played. After a few months I started to devise a strategy that was working well as long as I was focused on the game and [was] not distracted by a phone call or someone talking to me. I’d generally play the game for an hour or two per day, sometimes longer, depending on what my schedule would allow. I figured this was a marathon, not a sprint; no sense trying to finish the game in a single setting, and since I didn’t know what the maximum score might be, I figured I’d better pace myself."

Don't think you have the patience to sit through 2000+ hours of Bejeweled 2? Lucky for you that Leyde and PopCap chronicled his achievement in the video below.