How fast can a person clear a Minesweeper board? Much faster than you'd think. Here are the current records for every level, the players behind them and how the Expert record fell from over a minute to under 27 seconds.
The current records. The fastest times on the Minesweeper World Ranking are 0.45 seconds on Beginner (Michal Szoplik, 2021), 5.80 seconds on Intermediate (Ze-En Ju, 2022) and 26.59 seconds on Expert (Ze-En Ju, 2022).
| Level | Record | Set by |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner 8 × 8, 10 mines | 0.45 s | Michal Szoplik, Poland January 3, 2021 |
| Intermediate 16 × 16, 40 mines | 5.80 s | Ze-En Ju, China March 31, 2022 |
| Expert 30 × 16, 99 mines | 26.59 s | Ze-En Ju, China August 23, 2022 |
These records come from the Minesweeper World Ranking at minesweepergame.com, where the top players send in recordings of their games so every record can be checked. We last checked the list in November 2026. Note that the ranking still plays Beginner on the original 8 × 8 board, not the 9 × 9 of later Windows versions and this site.
You may also see an even faster Expert time mentioned: 25.1 seconds by Ze-En Ju in 2024, reported by the tech site heise. When we checked, that game wasn't on the World Ranking's list.
0.45 seconds sounds impossible, and it's not only down to the player. Some Beginner boards can be cleared with just a couple of clicks: one click opens most of the board, a second one finishes it. The record game needed only two.
That's why serious players also look at a second number, called 3BV per second. 3BV is the smallest number of clicks a board needs to clear it. Divide it by your time and you see how fast you really played, whatever board you got. Ze-En Ju holds the 3BV per second record on all three levels too.
Expert is the record everyone looks at: 480 squares, 99 mines and no way to get lucky with a single click. Here's how it came down.
| Year | Time | Player |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 64 s | Ruben Spaans |
| 1997 | 59 s | Scott Sukenick |
| 2000 | 51 s | Lasse Nyholm |
| 2002 | 41 s | Lasse Nyholm |
| 2004 | 38.84 s | Oliver Scheer |
| 2007 | 36.77 s | Dion Tiu |
| 2009 | 32.95 s | Ian Fraser |
| 2010 | 31.13 s | Kamil Murański |
| 2020 | 29.43 s | Ze-En Ju |
| 2022 | 26.59 s | Ze-En Ju |
The early records are whole seconds, the way the Windows timer counted. Later records were set in programs that time a game to the hundredth of a second and save a recording, so it can be checked.
Look at the gap between 2010 and 2020. Kamil Murański's 31.13 stood for ten years. Then, in 2020, a 12-year-old from China broke the 30-second barrier: Ze-En Ju cleared Expert in 29.43 seconds. He lowered it five more times, down to 26.59 seconds in 2022.
Guinness World Records has its own Minesweeper record: the fastest combined time for all three levels. It's 38.65 seconds, set by Kamil Murański from Poland in Bielsko-Biała in 2014.
The World Ranking has moved on since then. Ze-En Ju's best times on the three levels add up to 32.88 seconds.
Google doesn't keep a leaderboard for its Minesweeper, and a screenshot can't be checked, so there are no official records for Google's version. You'll find plenty of claims online, mostly for Easy. With just 10 mines on Easy, a lucky first click can open most of the board, and a game can be over in a couple of seconds.
Google's boards also have different sizes from the classic ones, so their times can't be compared with the records above. Want to try them? Play the same sizes on our Google Minesweeper page.
Top players have seen every common shape thousands of times. A 1-2-1 or a 1-2-2-1 doesn't need thinking, just clicking. Our page on Minesweeper patterns is a good place to start.
Every flag is a click that doesn't open anything. Many top players hardly flag at all and only click the safe squares. The Beginner record above was set without a single flag.
Fast players open squares in an order that keeps the mouse moving in one direction and opens the most squares per click. Clicking a number to open everything around it saves a lot of clicks too.
The best players have played an enormous number of games, and their hands know the moves before their heads do.
Don't measure yourself against the world records on day one. Here are some times to beat instead, from a first goal to really quick. These are our suggestions, not official numbers.
| Level | First goal | Good | Very good |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 30 s | 10 s | 5 s |
| Intermediate | 3 min | 60 s | 30 s |
| Expert | 10 min | 3 min | 100 s |
Our game saves your best time for every level. Games where you used a hint can't set a best time, so every new record is all yours. Play Minesweeper and see where you stand.
On the classic levels the records are 0.45 seconds on Beginner, 5.80 seconds on Intermediate and 26.59 seconds on Expert, according to the Minesweeper World Ranking.
There's no single title, but Ze-En Ju from China holds most of the current records, including the Intermediate and Expert times. Before him, Kamil Murański from Poland was the player to beat.
3BV is the smallest number of clicks you need to clear a board without flags. Some boards need far fewer clicks than others, so players divide 3BV by their time to compare games fairly.
Yes. Players meet at live tournaments, and the 2025 Minesweeper World Championship was held in Madrid, Spain, in September 2025.
No. Records are set in special programs that save a recording of every game, so they can be checked. Times on websites like this one don't count, but they're a great way to practice.
Sources: Minesweeper World Ranking, Guinness World Records, TheGamer and heise. Last checked in November 2026.
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