Microsoft Excel remains a core tool for hundreds of millions of workers, according to Microsoft, and a growing number of content creators are turning mastery of the software into entertainment and competition. These power users attract large followings by posting fast-paced “obstacle runs” and shortcuts, with some competing in official world championships for prize money. For many of them, the goal is not just personal glory but helping others improve their skills.
Dan Kidney, a 32-year-old in London, said he accidentally developed advanced Excel abilities while working as an insurance data analyst and building his own ecommerce company. He began posting beginner tutorials on TikTok during a planned employment break, but his engagement soared when he shared footage of himself racing through an Excel obstacle course he designed. The clip drew 1 million views within days, with commenters noting he finished pages before they could read the instructions. Kidney now has 300,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok under the name Functional Excel, and his templates have been used by a schoolteacher in rural Germany for a class competition.
Jonathan Tristan, a 29-year-old Los Angeles-based content creator known as Your Finance Brother, urges viewers to abandon the mouse entirely and rely on keyboard combinations. He goes so far as to instruct people to pop the F1 key off their keyboard, because accidentally pressing it opens a help menu and slows down work. Tristan, a former investment banker, tells his 700,000 followers that every minute matters on Wall Street, where spending 10 hours a day in Excel means a 10 percent speed gain could translate into an extra hour of sleep.
Friendly rivalry also drives the community. Drew Koontz, a 29-year-old data analyst behind the tutorial site Encyclopedia Excel, said obstacle courses and speedruns allow direct comparison of times and methods. He noted that Excel has become an unlikely esport, pointing to the Microsoft Excel World Championships held in Las Vegas last December, where Diarmuid Early of Ireland won, defeating Andrew Ngai of Australia, who had won the title three consecutive times from 2021 to 2023. Koontz also praised engineer George Lungu, who runs the site Excel Unusual, for building flight simulators, physics engines, and roller coasters inside the program.
Ryan Park, a 49-year-old data scientist and father in Cincinnati, is credited by many influencers with expanding the scene through his Excel Obstacle Course tutorials. Park developed his speed by correcting 401(k) data for clients with varied spreadsheet layouts, and he compares Excel shortcuts to the special moves in Street Fighter II. He has about 300,000 followers and says some viewers find his keyboard-only work soothing or say it gives them “tingles.”
Park dismisses the notion that artificial intelligence makes Excel skills obsolete, saying he would finish a task before someone could explain it to an AI tool. He believes the program will remain essential, comparing it to pen and paper, which he says will never disappear.
