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The Geometry Dash Demon List (often referred to simply as the List) is a highly influential and professional organization within the *Geometry Dash* community that maintains a comprehensive ranking of the game's most difficult user-created levels, specifically the "Extreme Demons" [1]. The list ranks these levels from the most challenging (Top 1) down to the 150th hardest [1, 2].

The list has been seated at the center of the community's conscience for nearly half of the game’s history and is considered one of the most influential organizations found in *Geometry Dash* [1]. It served as a major catalyst that shifted the community's primary focus toward difficulty, ranking hard levels, and the idolization of astronomically difficult achievements, thereby driving the push toward increased difficulty in level creation [3-5].

The existence of the "Demon" difficulty rating system is attributed to the level **Demon Park**, which was uploaded on October 17, 2013 [6]. At the time, Demon Park was the hardest level in the game, and its extreme difficulty prompted RobTop to create the "Demon Level" rating [6]. In the early years of *Geometry Dash*, before competitive play was seriously viewed as "a thing," harder levels often received dislikes from the community [4, 7].

The idea of a formal difficulty list began in late 2014, following the release of update 1.9, when the community was smaller and less focused on difficulty [5, 8].

• Lugia's List (Late 2014): The first official Demon difficulty list was initiated by veteran player Lugia and published on the *Geometry Dash* forums [9]. This list allowed levels to be ranked based on rating alone, not completion, which meant levels like **Silent Club** could hold the number one spot despite having little to no progress [10]. Lugia's list was heavily criticized for being poorly managed, often outdated, and inaccurate due to Lugia’s inactivity [10].
• Ifrusternach's List (April 2015): In April 2015, Ifrusternach launched a spin-off list that was actively managed, featured clear rules, and had better formatting [11]. However, this list also drew criticism because Ifrusternach was not a top player, leading to disagreements from elite players regarding the level placings [11, 12]. The verification of **Bloodbath** by Riot in August 2015 was the first major, legitimately verified Top 1 Demon placed on Ifrusternach’s list [13].
• Riot's List (November 2015): To address management concerns, top player Riot organized a third forum list in mid-November 2015, alongside influential members like Razer, Heinz, Michigan, and Zobros [12]. This rendition closely resembled the modern list, notably introducing the requirement for a minimum percentage threshold for records to be submitted, which helped address the oversaturation of insignificant submissions [14].

In August 2016, **Cobalt** took over ownership of Riot’s list [15]. He transitioned record submissions from the forums to a Google Form and spreadsheet system [15]. Riot subsequently left the organization in September 2016 [15].

In late 2016, Cobalt convinced **Status**, a Discord bot programmer who lacked professional website building experience, to integrate his bot with the list [16-18]. Status learned website building and, after extensive work, launched the official Demon List website, **Pointercrate**, on April 9, 2017 [19]. The launch was a massive success, increasing community hype and solidifying the list as a professional institution [20].

Initially the list contained only the Top 40 levels [21], but due to the abundance of hard levels, it expanded to the **Top 50** [22]. In October 2017, the list expanded again to the **Top 100**, aimed at increasing accessibility and motivation for players seeking to complete Extreme Demons [23].

In July 2019, the list expanded from 100 to **150 slots** (75 Main List and 75 Extended List) [2]. This expansion was driven by the concern that RobTop was rating many Extreme Demons at once, causing levels to be pushed into the Legacy list too quickly [2, 24].

The list points system provides a primary motivation for players [25]. The point value decreases exponentially down the list, reflecting the notion that difficulty increases exponentially towards the top [26].

• List Points Formula: The current formula ensures that the number one ranked demon is worth exactly **150 points**, and the bottom level (number 150) is worth exactly **5 points** [26].
• Progress Points: Players can earn Progress Points for achieving a record above the minimum requirement [27]. The formula grants 10% of the level’s total point value at the minimum required progress, rising exponentially to a maximum of **50%** of the total value as the player approaches completion [27]. The 50% limit is set to encourage players to finish levels they start [27].

Throughout its history, the list struggled with managing the overwhelming number of record submissions due to staff quotas and a lack of individual accountability [28, 29].

In September 2019, the **Shift System** was introduced by Gunner Bones to solve this issue [29]. This system divided time into 12-hour slots, and staff members were assigned to these shifts, becoming individually responsible for checking all records submitted during their designated 12-hour window [30]. This provided a more effective system than the previous weekly quotas [29].

The list faced significant, long-running debates regarding the legitimacy of using an FPS bypass (refresh rate hack) to play the game above the monitor's native refresh rate [31, 32].

• Initial Banning: When the first bypass hack was released by Magoste in November 2016, the staff opposed it, considering it an external modification and a cheat [33, 34]. It was initially "shadow banned" (records rejected without public announcement) [34]. A refined version released in December 2017 by Absolute forced the list to officially ban the bypass on December 20, 2017 [32, 35]. The list argued it was an outside influence granting an advantage, classifying it as a cheat [32].
• Unbanning: The discussion resurfaced in 2020, particularly following the introduction of the "Pie Pass" exploit [36, 37]. The team ultimately reached a consensus to allow the bypass, noting that future updates (2.2) were expected to feature a built-in FPS bypass, and that high refresh rate monitors (High Hertz) were already considered a technical exploit [38, 39]. To maintain consistency, the list decided to allow the FPS bypass for all players [39]. The use of the FPS bypass was officially permitted on May 25, 2020, with a cap set at **300 frames per second** [38, 40].

Several levels were rated as Top 1 despite being illegitimately verified, skewing the early history of the list [41-43].

• **Sonic Wave (Original):** Cyclic hack-verified the level, which was later unrated until Sonix verified it legitimately [44, 45].
• **Zodiac:** Xander 556 hack-verified the level in January 2019, though it was still placed at number one until Technical became the first legitimate victor in April 2019 [46-49].
• **Slaughterhouse:** The first verification was done illegitimately by SpaceUK, although Doggy's subsequent legitimate verification was the one that counted [50-53].

The following table highlights key levels that held the undisputed Top 1 spot on the list, demonstrating significant leaps in community skill and difficulty.

Riot is credited as the first player to truly start pushing the boundaries of difficulty, verifying levels like ICDX and Cataclysm, and later Bloodbath [4, 54-56].

Other notable players who pushed the list's limits include:

• Trusta: Verified Sakupen Hell and Yatagarasu [21, 72].
• Sonix: Legitimate verifier of Sonic Wave [44].
• Noble Boy: Verifier of Blood Lust [61].
• Technical: First legitimate victor of Zodiac [49, 64].
• nSwish: Became the first player in *Geometry Dash* history to beat the entire Main List (Top 75) in September 2020 [52].
• Zoink: Verified Acheron and Tidal Wave, and has also beaten the entire Main List [68-70, 73].

• [41] EricVanWilderman. "Complete History of TOP 1 Levels in GEOMETRY DASH." YouTube. *Excerpts from the transcript*, retrieved (N/A).
• [99] norkbork. "The Full History of the Geometry Dash Demons List." YouTube. *Excerpts from the transcript*, retrieved (N/A).

Category:Video game culture Category:Online communities