World records involving playing cards

Some of the best-known playing card records include the enormous buildings Bryan Berg constructs without glue or tape, and memorising an entire deck in under 13 seconds at memory championships. There are also records for deck collections and marathon games.

Houses of cards several metres tall

American Bryan Berg has become famous for building giant structures using nothing but stacked cards, some more than seven metres tall. If you fancy trying something more modest at home, take a look at what a house of cards is.

Memorising a deck in seconds

Memory championships include ‘speed cards’ events: memorising the order of a 52-card French-suited deck. The best competitors do it in under 13 seconds using memory palace techniques. We explain how in is it possible to memorise an entire deck?.

Card throwing

There are also records for throwing a card as far as possible. Magicians who practise this skill achieve distances of more than 60 metres.

Collectors and museums

Some private and public collections contain tens of thousands of decks. Find out about them in the world's largest collections of playing card decks.

We don't break records, but we can offer you a good game: choose your game.