hold space.

Press space. Hold it. A counter goes up. Let go and it stops.

That's the whole game. No levels, no upgrades, no tutorial. Just you, your space bar and a timer that's quietly asking how long you can last: a minute? An hour? A full day?

And you're never holding alone. Every second is timed by our servers and ranked against the whole world, live, while your thumb is still down.

The main game. Hold as long as you can and beat your best. Watch yourself climb the global, regional and friends leaderboards in real time as your timer ticks past other players, with a shout every time you pass someone.

• Live leaderboards: global, your country, and your Steam friends

• 19 Steam achievements, from your very first second to 24 hours straight

• Hide your name from public boards if you'd rather hold in secret

Two players, two space bars. Get matched with anyone in the world, or invite a Steam friend straight from the game.

• Last to let go: first to release loses. It's that simple and that brutal.

• Closest to target: a time is shown, then the timer vanishes. Let go as close to it as you dare, but go over and you lose to anyone who stayed under.

Wins, losses and streaks are tracked. Fancy a rematch?

Up to 50 players hold at once. Everyone's on one board, and you watch it grey out, one name at a time. Not holding when it says GO? You're out. Let go, or fail a quick check, and you're out. The last one holding wins.

Dropped early? Stay and watch the rest fight it out. Tournaments played, won and your best place are all tracked.

Everyone's holds fill one shared global goal before the deadline. Beat it and the next goal is twice as big. Miss it and it halves, so the goals size themselves to however many of us are holding.

Put in a second or more to earn the goal's badge. The top three contributors take the podium.

Holding space earns drops: one for every 2 hours held, in any mode, up to 5 a week. Open one and the reel spins to a key from a full-size keyboard, all 104 of them, from Esc to Numpad Enter.

• Six rarities: white, blue, purple, orange, gold, and super rare holographic keys that shimmer with rainbow light. About 1 drop in 3,300.

• Spell things. Three of the same key in the same colour combine into any key of that colour.

• Event keys like the Halloween pumpkin, only while the event runs.

• Show them off. Keys are Steam inventory items, so they appear on your Steam profile. They're never sold, traded or put on the market.

• The server holds the stopwatch. The game never sends a score. Every hold is timed by our server's own clock, and only the server can write to the leaderboards.

• Quick checks. On long holds the run pauses now and then: type the word or pick the space keys, then hold space to carry on. Paused time never counts. Tape and macros, beware.

• Pull the plug, lose the run. Go quiet and your hold ends at the last moment we heard from you.

• Plays in your language. Fully translated into 28 languages.