The Guinness World Record For Most Pubs Visited Has Officially Been Set

Have you ever gone on a bar crawl? If you're anything like us, you may have found that your body, mind, and bank account can only withstand so many watering holes before the burn of too many beer-shot combos and greasy plates of pub snacks starts to take its toll. Others can only gather the wherewithal for more than a few bar stops if they're dressed in a big red suit for the infamous SantaCon, an annual raucous bacchanal that culminates in bar takeovers in several cities across the U.S. But this year, a determined class of imbibers cleared their schedules with the hopes of breaking last year's Guinness World Record for "most pubs visited in 24 hours."

In 2021, that coveted title went to Matt Ellis, who visited 51 pubs within a 20-mile radius of a British town over the course of nine hours, per BBC. According to BBC, the Guinness rules for this particular title dictate that Ellis had to consume 125ml of "any drink" at a minimum of 50 pubs, which proved more difficult than it sounds. "There's only so much drink you can get into your body," he said. Here's where the record stands in 2022. 

This past June, Welshman Gareth Murphy broke the World Record held by Matt Ellis when he visited 54 pubs within 24 hours in February, says Guinness. In September, three months after Guinness verified Murphy's win, Food & Wine reports that Englishman Nathan Crimp swooped in to claim that he had visited 67 different pubs. As he waited for his claim to receive the Guinness stamp of approval, a third competitor came out of the woodwork. 

Heinrich de Villiers of South Africa said that he had drinks (mostly beer and soft drinks) at a whopping 78 pubs on a crawl in Australia back in February and that his initial certification process was waylaid due to "a bit of confusion surrounding his application," per Food & Wine. As it stands, de Villiers holds the 2022 record. But with the pattern of this year's applicants, we wouldn't be surprised if yet another expert pub crawler laid claim to the title before the new year.