Best records of 2025: feats of strength, massive food and one iconic doggy playdate

Can you believe this year is almost over?

2025 has been an absolutely incredible time for record breaking. We’ve seen amazing things and you’ve performed incredible feats.

As the year comes to a close and we try to mentally prepare ourselves for the unbelievable things you’re going to do in 2026, let’s take a look back at the last 12 months.

This is our Best of 2025… and we’re starting with the animals.

Four-legged legends

Back in April, the world’s tallest dog, a Great Dane named Reggie and Chihuahua Pearl (both USA), the shortest dog, met up for the first time ever.

And yes, it was freakin’ adorable.

Despite Reggie measuring 3 ft 3 in (1.007 m) to the withers and Pearl standing at just 3.59 in (9.14 cm), they became fast friends during their play date.

In October, we met two wonderful record-breaking donkeys who live together at a UK sanctuary.

Dynamic Derrick is the world’s tallest living donkey at 5 ft 5 in (167 cm) and Bambou has the longest ears on a donkey, measuring 1 ft 1 in (35 cm).

We met another big boy in February, King Kong, the tallest living water buffalo.

He’s a massive 6 ft 0.8 in (185 cm) tall and is living his very best life on a farm in Thailand.

Find more stories about amazing animals in our dedicated section.

Famous faces

In August, we made country music legend Dolly Parton a Guinness World Records ICON.

She’s had the kind of career that other artists dream of and she’s penned some of the most iconic songs ever released.

A couple of months earlier, in June, we met up with sporting superstar Usain Bolt (Jamaica), who was also named an ICON.

The legendary sprinter put his knowledge of 100 m records to the test in a quiz set for him by the book’s Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday.

Cool kids

In March, Alberto Davila Aragon (UK) showed off his incredible memory skills by breakng the record for most decimal places of Pi recalled in one minute. 

He had memorized an incredible 280 numbers.

In May, four very special babies celebrated their first birthday.

Lainey, Kali, Lennon, and Koen Bryant, aka the “Quads of Aubs” are the most premature quadruplets.

They were born at a gestational age of 23 weeks 4 days and weighed between 577 g (1 lb 4.4 oz) and 647 g (1 lb 6.8 oz).

In February, eight-year-old gymnast Kynlee Heiman (USA), aka "Kynlee the Great", earned her spot in record-breaking history when she did the most gymnastic bar toe-to-hand movements in 30 seconds (female) - a total of 18.

Run as fast as you can

In September, Gabrielle Wall (New Zealand) put her pain threshold through its paces when she ran the fastest 100 m barefoot on LEGO® bricks.

The amazing mum did it in just 24.76 seconds.

And in May, a cute little robot dog named Whiterhino, developed by Center for X-Mechanics, Zhejiang University (China), ran the fastest 100 m by a quadrupedal robot in just 16.33 seconds.

An explosive time

In August, Brown & Mason Group Ltd (UK) created a very satisfying record-breaking display when they demolished eight cooling towers at Cottam Power Station, Nottinghamshire, UK.

It broke the record for most cooling towers demolished with controlled explosives simultaneously and looked incredibly cool.

Feats of strength

Vispy Jimmy Kharadi (India) put on an amazing display of brute strength when he broke the record for heaviest weight holding Hercules Pillars (male).

He held up an unbelievable 261 kg (575.4 pound) when he took on the challenge in August.

In March, Olivia Vinson (Australia) stunned the fitness world when she did the most pull ups in 24 hours (female).

Her total of 7,079 almost doubled the previous record.

Find more stories like this in our Sports and Fitness section.

Sarah Blackman (USA) became the oldest person to perform an abdominal plank (female) in January at the age of 82 years and 229 days.

And the male version of the record was broken twice, by Maynard Williams (New Zealand) at 78 years 135 days in April, and by Robert Schwartz (USA) at 81 years 16 days in July.

In September, a group of people in India formed the tallest human pyramid in history, getting it to the 10^th level for the first time ever.

Cool collections

In February, YouTuber Kerchie (USA) showed us around her largest collection of Polly Pocket items.

She’s got 534 unique versions of the beloved toy from her childhood.

While in July, The Legend of Zelda superfan Constantine Adams (USA) showed us his record-breaking memorabilia collection.

He has 3,918 things!

Fantastic foodies

In June, content creator pals Phoenix Ross and Oli Paterson (both UK) teamed up to make the largest scotch egg.

The gigantic snack weighed a whopping 7.81 kg (17 lb 3.48 oz) and basically fed the boys for weeks.

In September, Hilda Baci (Nigeria), of cooking marathon fame, teamed up with Gino to create the largest serving of Nigerian style jollof rice.

The gigantic dish weighed 8,780 kg (19356 lb, 9 oz) and fed the community.

Amazing humans

As part of the St David’s Day 2025 celebrations in March, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Marmalade (UK) added the most flowers on a dress by sticking 1,862 daffodils to a gown in a display of national pride.

In June, Vitomir Maričić (Croatia) broke a record many thought was unbreakable.

He held his breath for 29 min 3 sec to claim the title for longest time breath held voluntarily underwater (male).

And finally in September, John Ferguson (Canada) took to the skies to become the shortest person to wing walk (male) at a height of 4 ft 1.12 in (1.24 m).

This is all just a very short snapshot of the countless incredible records that were broken this year.

What was your favourite record of 2025?