Why held keys don't count: hold any key and your OS fires a stream of repeat events — 15 to 30 per second of pure fiction. We check the repeat flag on every event and ignore them, so the number here is actual thumb work. Sites that skip this check hand out 30 "presses" a second for holding still. One heatmap honesty note: an actual keypress carries no on-screen coordinate, so keyboard presses plot to the center of the box — only phone taps land where you actually touched.
Reference speeds
- 6–8 per second — brisk single-thumb tapping; most people land here.
- 9–12 — quick, usually with the wrist joining in.
- 13+ — two-finger drumming on the spacebar or a very practiced thumb. The key itself becomes the limit: laptop keys with short travel go faster than deep mechanical ones.
Fun physical fact: the spacebar is the only key most keyboards give two stabilizer bars, and it still wears out first. It takes roughly 600,000 presses a year from an average typist before games even enter the picture.