Unofficial 293 WPM Typing World Record Set by MythicalRocket

A new world typing record of 293 words per minute (wpm) was apparently set last weekend by aptly-named Twitter user @MythicalRocket. The typist uploaded a video of the speed run to his YouTube account showing him achieving 293 wpm with 97% accuracy over 15 seconds on Monkeytype on April 30. This followed a record-setting run just one day earlier, in which he reached 272wpm with 98% accuracy over 60 seconds. 

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It might surprise you that MythicalRocket is not a court stenographer or a transcriptionist (or a mythical rocket), but a 16-year-old from Florida who first got into speed-typing a few years ago. He set his current record on a full-size SteelSeries Apex Pro with optical switches, though he says he doesn't believe the type of switches makes that much of a difference in speed. 

"I used to use the Apex 7, which is basically the Apex Pro but with brown switches, and I was pretty much just as fast,"  he told me via Twitter DM. "The switch initially took a while to get used to, but after a few weeks, I got back up to speed." 

I asked if he's only used SteelSeries keyboards, and he said, "Pretty much." I also asked if SteelSeries had at least sent him some swag, and he replied, "Haha, I wish, but I haven't gotten anything from typing yet" — minus the online notoriety, of course. Finally, he mentioned trying the Logitech G915 but didn't like the low profile. 

As for MythicalRocket's keyboard layout of choice, it's the tried-and-true QWERTY. This might come as a surprise, as many speed-typists have been known to use alternate, allegedly more efficient layouts, such as Dvorak or Colemak.

"QWERTY isn't actually all that bad, and that's coming from someone who also has 200+ wpm scores on other alt layouts," MythicalRocket, who also knows Colemak and Canary, said.

The current "official" Guinness World Record holder for fastest typist appears to still be Barbara Blackburn, whose peak speed was 212 wpm using a Dvorak layout. Of course, that "official" world record has been unofficially beaten several times in in-person typing contests and online leaderboards. (MythicalRocket has not contacted Guinness to make his record "official," nor does he seem to have plans to.) 

MythicalRocket currently tops the leaderboards at Monkeytype, which is one of two sites he uses to cultivate his speed (the other is TypeRacer), and his most recent records are both from Monkeytype. In addition to Twitter, he posts videos of his typing exploits on TikTok and Youtube.