PB
/piː biː/
CommonPersonal best: your fastest time or best performance on something, compared only against yourself.
A PB is a win even if the time is far from the world record. The point is improvement over your own past performance.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | PB by 47 seconds!!!!! i'm actually crying | The person beat their previous best time by 47 seconds, a big improvement causing an emotional reaction. | x, 2024 |
| 02 | run started rough but finished clean. pb by 3 seconds | Despite a bad start, the run ended better than any previous attempt by 3 seconds. | twitch, 2023 |
| 03 | finally hit sub 30 on the first level. that's been my goal for like a month | The person reached a specific time target they had been working toward. | |
| 04 | ran 5k in 24 mins today. new pb. the gym arc is real | The person beat their personal best running time outside of gaming. | x, 2024 |
Use it when
- Someone beats their own previous best time on a game or level.
- Someone achieves a personal milestone in any activity.
- Celebrating self-improvement regardless of where it places against others.
Do not use it when
- You mean the global fastest time, which is held by any person in the world.Use “world record” instead.
Variations and related forms
PB vs world record
PB
PB is the best time a specific individual has ever achieved.
VS
world-record
World record is the best time anyone in the world has ever achieved.
Origin and context
The abbreviation PB comes from athletics where personal best describes an individual's best performance in a given event. Speedrunning communities adopted it to describe an individual runner's fastest time.
- First seen
- pre-internet
- Confidence
- high
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/pbUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0