The biggest, fastest, rarest — documented.
A source-first almanac of world records and superlatives. Every entry names the current record-holder, states the figure with its unit and scope, gives an as-of date, and links to the wonders it relates to.
A record is a claim — ours carry receipts
The #1, then the field
Every entry names the current record-holder and lines up the runners-up beneath it — the figure, the unit and the scope, in a clean ranked table.
Cited and dated
Records change, so each value is drawn from a named, publicly verifiable source and carries an as-of date. No fabricated numbers, no unsupported “of all time.”
Everything connects
The tallest building links to the wonder that holds the title; the fastest sprinter to the fastest animal. Follow a record to the story behind it.
Featured records
Superlative topics ranked and sourced — the #1, the runners-up, the numbers and the story.
The Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold
Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi is the most expensive painting ever sold, at $450.3 million in 2017.
See the ranking →The Fastest Human-Made Object
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is the fastest human-made object, reaching about 692,000 km/h near the Sun.
See the ranking →The Fastest Human Sprinters
Usain Bolt holds the 100 m world record at 9.58 seconds, set in Berlin in 2009.
See the ranking →The Deepest Free Dives
Herbert Nitsch reached 253.2 metres on a single breath in the No-Limits freediving discipline in 2012.
See the ranking →The Most Distant Human-Made Object
Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object, over 24 billion kilometres from Earth and still transmitting.
See the ranking →The Most Expensive Cars Ever Sold
A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé sold for €135 million in 2022, the most ever paid for a car.
See the ranking →The record-holders themselves
Profiles of the exceptional people, places and objects behind the records.
Burj Khalifa
The 828-metre Dubai skyscraper that has been the world's tallest building since 2010.
Usain Bolt
The Jamaican sprinter who holds the 100 m and 200 m world records and won eight Olympic gold medals.
Salvator Mundi
The Leonardo-attributed painting of Christ that became the most expensive artwork ever sold.
From a claim to a sourced record
Find the holder
We identify the current record-holder and the field behind it, then pull the figure, its unit and the scope it applies to.
Cite & date it
Every value is traced to a named, publicly verifiable source and stamped with an as-of date, because records don’t stand still.
Rank & connect
We line up the runners-up, note where methods differ, and link each record to the wonders and rival records it relates to.
Every superlative, sourced
From the tallest building to the rarest blood type — open any record for its #1 holder, the ranked field, the figures and the citations.
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