I found this 25-cell quadratic-growth pattern on October 21, 2014. Its initial population improved on the previous 26-cell record, which had stood for eight years.
The animation shows the original seed after 4,194,304–16,777,216 generations. Each lit square contains live cells within a 16,384 × 16,384-cell region; the entire pattern is simulated. The view stays fixed as the structure grows, then the clip resets.
A small seed, continuing growth
The size here counts live cells in the initial configuration. They are spread across a large bounding box: a small population does not necessarily mean a compact pattern.
LifeWiki classifies the result as a breeder. Its long-term population grows quadratically as the evolving pattern generates further growing components.
The next discoveries
The 25-cell record lasted two days. I found a 24-cell pattern on October 23, then switch engine ping-pong with 23 cells on October 29.
These are separate patterns with their own downloadable RLE files. They describe the history of the search, rather than current minimum-population records. LifeWiki links the original report and supplies this pattern’s file.
