Minecraft player loses five-year match

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Phil Watson

A man who plays a single, continuous game of Minecraft over the last five years is said to have been devastated to have been "killed".

Phil Watson, 31, from Newcastle, was playing in the toughest hardcore mode, which means that his character can not be brought back to life.

Having traveled 6,316 miles, traveled 7,798 km and jumped 732,389 times, he was "a little full of me" and was surprised by a zombie baby and eaten by a spider.

He says the five-year match is a record.

"There was never any question of being the best or the longest, I just loved to play it and I managed to survive," he told BBC News.

"I started saying that I was the longest hardcore survivor in the world because I could not find anyone else.

"We did not find anyone who lasted more than two months."

Mr. Watson plays Minecraft most days, averaging 20 hours a week.

For those who are familiar with Minecraft, Mr. Watson's character was attacked by a zombie baby dressed in an enchanted armor.

He escaped and was wounded in the back by a hidden skeleton that threw him against the spider.

He could have survived all this had he eaten a golden apple earlier beneficial to health, he said.

"I was unlucky," Watson said.

"There are so many things I could have done, I felt stupid to make such an easy mistake."

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Phil Watson

Mr. Watson has more than 3,500 subscribers on YouTube and nearly 2,000 on the Twitch streaming platform, where he is known as Philza and met his fiancée, Kristin Rosales.

And he's already thinking about going back to Minecraft.

"At first I was so depressed that I thought I did not even want to watch Minecraft for the moment, I never wanted to see a zombie again," he said.

"But I'm starting to have that desire to create something and make another trip."