Donkey Kong Bananza is out on 17 July, and excitement is as high as a gorilla’s eye. It’s the first new videogame in the adventurous ape’s titular series in 18 years, and could break some new records for Nintendo’s famous frontmonkey.
But DK has a few fascinating gaming world records tucked under his belt already – at least, he would if he wore a belt…
Donkey Kong’s first appearance came all the way back in 1981, with the titular arcade cabinet Donkey Kong, created by legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto.
This trailblazing videogame was not only the first platform videogame but also the first use of cutscenes to tell a complete story in a game. We see DK, a dastardly villain at the time, kidnap Pauline – who is later rescued by Mario.
Speaking of which, Donkey Kong also marks the first appearance of Mario, Nintendo’s long-standing mascot and platforming plumber extraordinaire, though back then he was known as Jumpman.
He holds many records himself, including the unique accolade of being the star of the best-selling videogame series, with games in the Mario franchise having sold over 890 million copies so far – not even including titles for the newly released Switch 2 console.
Donkey Kong and Mario managed to put their enmity aside, and have teamed up often over the years. More recently, DK appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (USA, 2023) where he’s voiced by Seth Rogen.
That, too, was a smashing success, and raked in $1,359,146,628 (£1.079 bn) worldwide according to The Numbers, making it the highest-grossing movie based on a videogame.
There’s still much to celebrate with Donkey Kong’s lower-tech roots, and back in 2011 Sean “Bender” Beavers (USA) built a tiny Donkey Kong arcade cabinet that measured just 21 cm (8.25 in) tall, the world’s smallest Donkey Kong cabinet. It’s 512 times smaller than the full size games cabinet by volume, and is powered by a modified open-source handheld console, the GamePark GP2X.
That’s still almost twice as tall as the Switch 2 (which stands at about 11.4 cm (4.5 in) tall, though it’s much wider). And when Donkey Kong makes his Switch 2 debut later this month, we’ll be on the lookout for any new records!
Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition 2026 is out soon – keep an eye on our store!
