The 2023 Reddit pixel battle has come to an end, and the country that managed to occupy the most space on the final r/place canvas has been determined. This year’s event was the third edition and saw a lot of drama, including ongoing rivalries between countries, protests, rumors of bot usage, and a constantly expanding canvas on Reddit’s r/place.
Initially organized as an “internet experiment” in 2017, Reddit’s r/place gained popularity in 2022 when Twitch streamers joined in. We all enjoyed watching the efforts of streamers from different countries working to protect and expand their flags, but as the event drew to a close, it turned into a full-blown war.
Who won the Reddit pixel battle?
Although Reddit has not released any official data on the matter, we have analyzed the final r/place canvas and can now officially declare the winners of the Reddit pixel war 2023.
We calculated the percentage of canvas occupied by each country on a 3000×2000 pixel canvas. For countries that drew multiple flags at different points on the canvas, we only counted the largest flags on the final r/place canvas and disregarded smaller ones.
Below is the ranking of the top 20 countries, excluding those that occupied less than 0.2% of the canvas.
Here are the winners of the Reddit pixel battles:
- Germany: 3000×50 – 150,000 pixels – 2.5%
- Chile: 790×150 – 118,500 pixels – 1.97%
- Vietnam: 235×335 – 78,725 pixels – 1.31%
- Portugal: 330×150 – 49,500 pixels – 0.82%
- France: 130×360 – 46,800 pixels – 0.77%
- Netherlands: 1350×30 – 40,500 pixels – 0.67%
- Argentina: 400×100 – 40,000 pixels – 0.66%
- Guatemala: 145×165 – 38,425 pixels – 0.64%
- Ukraine: 425×90 – 38,250 pixels – 0.63%
- Morocco: 180×190 – 34,200 pixels – 0.57%
- Turkey: 200×155 – 31,000 pixels – 0.51%
- The UK: 245×120 – 29,400 pixels – 0.49%
- The USA: 230×110 – 25,300 pixels – 0.42%
- Brazil: 115×200 – 23,000 pixels – 0.38%
- Lithuania: 190×110 – 20,900 pixels – 0.34%
- India: 210×95: 19,950 pixels – 0.33%
- Finland: 180×90 – 16,200 pixels – 0.27%
- Italy: 100×140 – 14,000 pixels – 0.23%
- Norway: 145×90 – 13,050 pixels – 0.21%
- Switzerland: 60×215 – 12,900 pixels – 0.21%
See how users have formed the r/place 2023 final canvas in the timelapse video by u/SnooCupcakes8607 below.
There was only one name on everyone’s lips, Spez
On the final canvas of the r/place 2023 event, the name that stood out the most was Spez, the CEO of Reddit. While some users utilized the event to express their disapproval of Steve Huffman’s changes to the platform, those unfamiliar with the ongoing protests on Reddit began to inquire about the identity of Spez.
In April 2023, Reddit caused controversy by announcing plans to charge for its API, which had been free for more than a decade. This decision resulted in the shutdown of various third-party apps and endangered accessibility and moderation tools.
Christian Selig, the creator of Apollo, disclosed on May 31 that he would have to stop working on the Apollo app due to Reddit’s pricing. This incited outrage among Reddit users, and moderators organized a protest from June 12 to 14 by making their communities private or limiting postings.
Despite an internal memo released by Reddit’s CEO reported by The Verge, Steve Huffman, and some moderators retracting their involvement, others persisted with their protests.
Germany wins the Reddit pixel battle
Congratulations to Germany for winning this year’s Reddit pixel battle! They managed to cover the entire canvas from left to right at the r/place 2023 final canvas with their artwork.
Last year, France won with over 185,000 pixels, creating a large flag with a picture of their famous football player and coach Zidane, and the Eiffel Tower.
This year, Germany created many mini artworks on their flag. The r/place 2023 event had plenty of drama and concluded with a final Twitch event where participants could show off their cake badges.
Let’s end with Reddit’s r/place 2023 farewell video and look forward to the next event in 2024!
Maybe the real friends were creations made along the way. Thank you for participating in r/place.
byu/reddit_irl inplace
Featured image credit: Photo by Sahand Babali on Unsplash.
