On 7th December 2011, Petter Grøn from Skui, Norway, messaged "THE GAME" to over 3000 people on the Bærum district school learning platform causing instant loss to everyone involved. Click the image below to see the names of the damned...

On 21st November 2006, Kaytee Cahill from Bay Village, Ohio emailed us:

"Your website is completely AWESOME. I have been playing the game for about a year now. It honestly has completely taken over my life. It is all i EVER think about anymore!!! I have told about 100 people about the game, its so crazy. Well, I just have a question. I really don’t know how unreasonable it is.. but do you think there is ANYWAY possible you could send me a free tee-shirt?? omg that would be GREATLY appreciated. I would seriously wear it every single day of my life."

We told Kaytee we'd send her a free t-shirt if she took photos of herself wearing it every day for a year. Click the collage below to see it full-size!

On 26th April 2011, Zach Weiner published a SMBC webcomic about The Game and a number of interesting interpretations such as The Anti-Game and The Meta-Game, making readers lose both metaphysically and sociologically across the world!

From 18th to 24th March 2011, Eugene Kotlyarenko's movie 0s & 1s was screened at reRun Theatre in New York City. It's a creatively filmed comedy about a boy who loses his computer. But that's not all he loses! Watch the clip below to find out why.

On 15th February 2011, British actor Simon Pegg, probably best known as Shaun from Shaun of the Dead, tweeted "Damn it, I just thought about Kit." Many of his 850,000 followers lost The Game, and Simon, blissfully unaware for the last 41 years, made the fateful mistake of asking "What's 'The Game'? And why did so many people lose it?" By the next day he was already displaying symptons of full-blown mind infection...

On Lose The Game Day 2009, Christopher Heatley from Belfast, Northern Ireland, won a Cadbury's Wispa Gold competition. His prize? A message of his choice on two roadside billboards in Belfast. His message?

On 28th May, one minute into his graduation speech at Snyder High School, Texas, and to an audience of over 2000 people, Jonathan Kerr said "I won’t forget how you have made me feel. For the rest of my life, you will be a part of who I am. And I just lost The Game." Check out the video below (he loses at about 1:35).

10th October 2010, the most successful Lose The Game Day in history; hundreds of thousands of people got involved and made millions lose The Game. Here are just a few of the people we'd like to thank for their involvement:

• Alex Baker and his Lose The Game Day Kerrang Radio show
• deadmau5 and his epic Facebook comment
• Sanne Rooseboom and her De Pers article
• Justine Wettshreck and her Daily Globe article
• Danny Marden and his record breaking juggling attempt
• Maria Musella and her college loss video
• Kevin Szabados and his Drive-Thru McDonalds fliers
• Drew Lyons and his deceptive e-mag and hot-gals websites
• Last but not least, the beautiful Montira Tongchai and her family for all their help with our "Mind Virus Outbreak" on Kao San Road, Bangkok

In June 2010 one of the vlogbrothers, Hank, lost The Game and explained its awesomeness in his video "You just lost THE GAME!". Within 24 hours, the video had been viewed over 40,000 times and received over 4,000 comments by people announcing their loss. With over 100 million total upload views, the vlogbrothers are the most popular YouTube channel to have discussed The Game.

In May 2010, Jenn, also known as JenxTheJinx, won a Game Award for regularly losing The Game on her YouTube channel which has over 3,000,000 upload views and 30,000 subscribers. Below is the video in which she first explains the rules of The Game:

In March 2010, YouTube celebrity Tessa, better known as Meekakitty, won a Game Award for her YouTube video "51 Things I found in my Suitcase". She uploaded it in December 2008 making over 300,000 people lose The Game in the following two years.

In March 2010, Simon went away for a week leaving his flat in the hands of his trustworthy friend Guy Hurst from London. Guy and some mates covered Simon's flat and everything in it with The Game:

In February 2010, Andrew Bisante won a Game Award for his "F_CK!?" YouTube video. He uploaded it on 3rd September 2009 and in five months made over 65,000 people lose The Game. Fortunately for his fans he has since made the video private...

On 25th January 2010, Dawn Watkinson from... wait for it... Gamesley, UK, lost The Game on MyYearbook Chatter and made more than 2000 other people lose in 15 minutes!

In May 2009, Amanda Hession from Dublin, Ireland, made a Bebo group, IL0STTHEGAME, which was joined by over 10,000 people in just four days. After twenty days it had over 35,000 members.

"TIME.com's technical team did detect and extinguish several attempts to hack the vote." - TIME magazine (article)

Below are the results of TIME magazine's poll for the world's 100 most influential people in 2009. Try reading the first letter of each name and see what they spell out.

"All they had to do was look at the two words in the captcha, enter the proper label for the ‘easy’ one and enter the word “penis” for the hard one." - Paul Lamere, MusicMachinery.com (first article / second article)

Although we don't know who did it, we've awarded everyone involved a Game Award for the most creative and amusing mass loss yet devised. Also, The Game.

In April 2009, John D. AKA "Whyte Lyte", an MC from Manhattan, Kansas, was announced winner of the 2008 Lose The Game Song Competition and was awarded a Game Award for his truly awesome song "The Game".

• ► Left-click here to listen to the song on your browser
• Right-click here to save the MP3 of the song (6MB)
• Whyte Lyte on Facebook
• Whyte Lyte on MySpace

Here are the lyrics:

We meet again Agent 7. This time, you are trapped in The Game. You can never escape, because you can never win. The rules? You think, and you lose. By the way, you've already lost... The Game!

You think, you lose, there is no way to win
That's the way The Game is played let me say it again
You think, you lose, there is no way to win
Oh Crap, I LOST THE GAME is the phrase you keepin'
[Repeat]

Welcome to The Game, let me start off by sayin'
Neither your knowledge or consent is required for playin'
Here's the deal, you don't have a choice,
You can lose The Game by the sound of a voice
And when you lose, ya gotta announce it, just be about it
Yeah, that's right, stand up and shout it
Now that you lost, you can never win
Cuz the minute you forget it, you are playin' again
Here's the coolest and cruelest thing I could do
Say that 'I just lost The Game, and now you did too'
You see that person? The one who just said 'hi'
Cuz you will now lose The Game every time they walk by
The reaction is chain, once you get The Game in your brain
The aim is insane, you can only claim to maintain
Your sanity, as the object is 'forget it exists'
But if The Game never leaves, tell me how can it be missed?

[Chorus x 2]

Don't get it twisted, the mission is to inflict association
Between losing of The Game and their favorite radio station
It's fact, just like that, they're trapped, with no way to escape
It's a snowball effect with the baddest of habits to break
Here's the part of the plan that you must understand
Make it personal, don't write 'Game' on the palm of their hand
Cuz we all got palms, and after the ink is gone
The memory of its presence will forever live on
May I suggest, or what I've heard works best
Stick a simple sticky note on the drivers' side head rest
So wherever they go, whether it's near or far
They say 'Crap, I lost The Game' whenever they get in the car
May I suggest, or what I've heard works best
Stick a simple sticky note on the drivers' side head rest
So wherever they go, whether it's near or far
They say 'Crap, I lost The Game' whenever they get in the car

I play The Game at its worst, so lightweights step aside
I throw this thing in reverse, saying 'Emag Eht Tsol I'
I lost The Game, backwards and forwards
Fly tossed the frame, a similar set of four-words
There's no way to stay clear, cuz the phrase your brain hears
Is the same thing that I sling from this mic to your ears
I've played The Game for two years, since that one fateful day
When one facebook invitation innocently came my way
What 'game' is this? Curiosity got to me
Then with terminal velocity started mentally tossin me
Simple as that, with one click, and now the fact remains
Life's not the same, since I LOST THE GAME
Fry lots of rain then fly 'cross the flame
Life's not the same, since I LOST THE GAME
The fly tossed the frame to find lots of fame
That exchange is insane but the result is the same
I LOST THE GAME

[Chorus x 2]

On 15th December 2008, Sanne Rooseboom explained The Game in "Nederland gaat nu ook verliezen" (Now The Netherlands are going to lose too) for De Pers, a free Dutch newspaper with a readership of around 350,000 people. Here is a translation of the article:

Think about it, and you`ve lost. The entertaining bit is that others lose as well, the moment you start tallking about it. This is The Game, an annoying little hype thats getting more and more popular every day.

You could be on a toilet in London and see it scratched in the door. You lose The Game. You lost what? The Game. Pay attention, this can be rather confusing. The Game exists because you know it does. You are now playing and the only thing you can do to win is to forget about it again. Just think of something else. As soon as you are somehow reminded of The Game, you lose and you have to tell someone. These are the rules with which hundreds of thousands of people around the world play The Game.

It is gaining ground, mainly through the internet. There are more than a hundred Facebook groups dedicated to The Game, most of which are moderated from the UK or the United States, the biggest one has around 90,000 members. The messages shared on the sites mostly come down to the same thing: ‘I lost’.

A couple of years ago, British teacher Jonty Haywood (26) started the website losethegame.com. ‘The number of people visiting my site has increased over the years to a current rate of 3000 new visitors every day,’ he writes in an email. ‘The Game is rather like a mental virus, and it's very contagious.’

Once you have lost The Game by thinking about it, the cool bit is to make others lose too. This can be done in a fast and effective way, say through text, email or msn. But there are less direct ways as well. ‘I lose’ scratched on toilet doors in London, the graffiti on New York bridges, and banknotes with ‘you have just lost the game’ scribbled in the corner. Rumour has it that there is a highschool in Ohio where The Game is prohibited because the avalanches of ‘I lose,’ were making it impossible to teach.

Nobody knows when it started. Jonty set up his website to find out about the roots of The Game. ‘I started an online family tree, where people recorded who had told them about The Game,’ he says. The online references went back to 2001. The Game might have started at Finchley Central, a London station, after the last train had left. A couple of men had to wait for hours before the first train would arrive and they tried not to think about their long wait. Who thought about it, lost. And there you go, the birth of The Game. The discussion is in almost academic wording, Jonty talks about the ‘Fichley Central Hypothesis.’ The debates on Facebook about the rules of the Game are pretty serious as well. The main discussion is about the philosophical question, whether everyone in the world plays, or only those who know about it.

According to some players, the Game ends when the British Prime Minister has said that he has lost on national televsion.

Jonty would like to see the whole world lose. Now that a Dutch newspaper has written about The Game, our country plays - and loses - as well. ‘I can only wish you luck. This is The Game. Now forget it!’

• Online article
• PDF of printed newspaper (article on page 23)

4th December 2008, Fred Attewill and John White documented The Game in the UK Metro. The Game is mentioned on the front page and explained in a full-page article on page 3. With a readership of over 3 million people, the UK experienced the biggest mass loss in human history! The article was read by one of the original creators of The Game who contacted LoseTheGame.com and revealed the details of this historical event! Please see our FAQ page for more details.

• Digital edition article (front page and page 3)
• Online article
• Font page: JPG
• Page 3: JPG / PDF

On 2nd December 2008, Jason Rose infected the University of York by explaining the rules of The Game on University Radio York.

In September 2008, Nick Margerrison interviewed LoseTheGame.com on The Night Before show on Kerrang! Radio. Alex Baker, the show's producer, arranged the interview. With hundreds of thousands of listeners, they were responsible for causing nationwide loss in epic proportions. They have been regularly losing The Game on air for years and may well be the most famous losers in the world!

• ► Left-click here to listen to the 2008 interview in your browser
• Right-click here to save the MP3 to your computer (8MB)

Alex Baker also explained The Game to over one million listeners in June 2010.

• ► Left-click here to listen to the 2010 show in your browser
• Right-click here to save the MP3 to your computer (8MB)

In July 2008, Graham Campbell and James Cook departed across Europe and Asia on a mission, a mission to make the world lose The Game. They drove 10,000 miles from London to Ulanbataar, the capital of Mongolia, all in a one litre Suzuki Alto with 'LoseTheGame.com' painted all over it. Were they insane? Yes. Did they die? Probably. Did they make thousands of people lose The Game on the way? Almost certainly. They arrived just in time for Lose The Game Day 2008 and raised £1000 ($1,500) for these charities.

On 7th June 2008, Gabriel Pollard published Wikinews loses The Game which also appeared in an RSS feed with over 3,000 subscribers.

On 31st May 2008, Justine Wettschreck, officially the coolest Mum in America, published Playing 'The Game' with the other kids for the Worthington Daily Globe which has a circulation of around 12,000. She also mentioned Trogdor the Burninator whom we all know and love.

On the 15th March 2008, Isaiah Lemmon made it into the top ten on the online game LOST. As part of our "team", his efforts helped LoseTheGame.com keep our first place position, causing the half a million LOST players to lose The Game every time they looked at the scoreboard.

On the 3rd March 2008, Randall Munroe mentioned The Game in an xkcd comic. By telling people that they have won The Game, Randall estimates that his comic caused around 500,000 people to lose.

On 17th January 2008, Shannon Montgomery published Teens around the world are playing 'the game' for the Canadian Press which was featured in a number of Canadian newspapers. This story also served as the long-awaited second reliable source required for the recreation of The Game article on Wikipedia.

Ray Hickey wrote an article for the Rutland Herald, Don't think about the game, which was read by around 17,000 people. We can't find any contact details to tell him about the award or to send him his t-shirt, so if you know him please let us know.

On the 24th September 2007 Greg Dean published a Real Life comic strip featuring The Game. With an estimated daily readership of 60,000 people, Greg made a lot of people lose!

In April 2007, I just lost "The Game" was the first The Game group on Facebook to reach 10,000 members. Created in July 2006 by Rachel Kaston, it acquired hundreds of new members every day, reaching an epic 200,000 active losers by 2010. Unfortunately all the members were removed when Facebook restructured their groups in 2011, but we're trying to get them all back again!

• Click here to join the group!

On 19th March 2007, Andy Boyle published an article about The Game in the Daily Nebraskan, which has a readership of around 20,000 people. He clearly states The Game's rules and undoubtably made thousands of new people lose The Game.

• Online article
• Photo of the printed article

On 15th March 2007, Jeroen Verelst published an article about The Game in the Belgian newspaper De Morgen. It gave a clear explanation of The Game's rules and other Game-related information. The newspaper has a daily circulation of over 50,000 readers and was also published online, infecting a lot of Belgian minds with The Game. Here is a translation of the article:

The Game must be the simplest game in the world. It all comes down to: "the moment you think about it, you lose". Psychology for beginners: try very hard not to think about something and you will think about it.

A player who loses The Game by thinking about it is obliged to state out loud that he has lost. One version says that all other players in the vicinity lose as well, other versions give other players a short amount of time - ten minutes or half an hour, the rules are vague - to forget about The Game again. Whichever version is played, for the losers not all is lost: the moment that The Game is out of their head again, they are playing it once more.

In the US and UK The Game is, mainly in schools and university, a modest hype. In Brazil, Australia and Japan, more and more youngsters follow. Nearer to us, The Game is starting to appear as well - slowly at the moment, but unstoppable all the same. The first rule determines that whoever knows of The Game, is playing it - so there's no escaping it.

In the UK, fanatics have developed several strategies to make their fellow players lose. They write "The Game" in big letters on the chalkboard in front of the class, they hide little notes saying that the founder of the note has lost. The ultimate strategy is, of course, to remind the competition of The Game as often as possible, without being reminded of it yourself.

But every victory is short, for it is always temporary. Ultimate victory does not exist, The Game never ends. Even for expert players, it is not known what the origins of The Game are. On the internet, several websites are dedicated to finding those origins.

Those of you who were not paying close attention might have missed it, but there can be no misunderstanding about it: all those who have read this article, play The Game now, whether you like it or not. Sorry.

• Photo of the printed article

In February 2007, Caleb Anderson lost The Game and explained the rules on Kiwi FM, a popular New Zealand radio station:

• Caleb: I just lost The Game.
  
• DJ: Lost what game?
  
• Caleb: The Game. Don't you know about The Game?
  
• DJ: Have we been drawn into something here?
  
• Caleb: Not really. Basically, rule one is everyone is playing The Game, so you've been playing it whether you knew it or not. Rule two, if you think about The Game, you lose.
  
• DJ: Oh no!
  
• Caleb: And rule three, you have to announce it. So you've all just lost for the first time. Congratulations.
  
• DJ: Can we play again tomorrow?
  
• Caleb: Yeah, you're always playing, as soon as you forget about it you're winning again.
  

• ► Left-click here to listen to the interview in your browser
• Right-click here to save the MP3 to your computer (1MB)

The first Game Award was presented to James Fairbairn from Minnesota for printing the rules of The Game in the 2005 Sogen Con guidebook and directed the audience to it. He was also responsible for The Game being featured in the No Brand Con guide book.