Joseph McGrail-Bateup has been certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s loudest person for the loudest human shout [1].
The achievement highlights the extreme limits of human vocal capacity and brings international attention to the traditional role of the town crier.
McGrail-Bateup, 58, is a professional air-conditioner cleaner and an honorary town crier based in Canberra, Australia [1, 2]. The official announcement of the record took place on June 23, 2026 [4].
To secure the title, McGrail-Bateup produced a shout that measured between 122 [3] and 122.4 decibels [1]. This level of sound is comparable to the noise generated by a jet taking off [1, 3].
Guinness World Records verified the measurement to crown the Canberra resident as the new record holder [1, 5]. The process required precise acoustic monitoring to ensure the shout met the strict criteria for the loudest human vocalization [1].
While McGrail-Bateup spends his primary working hours cleaning air-conditioning units, his secondary role as a town crier requires the ability to project his voice across public spaces, a skill he has now mastered at a world-record level [1, 2].
“Joseph McGrail-Bateup has been certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s loudest person”
This record demonstrates the intersection of professional skill and physiological capability. By reaching decibel levels typically associated with industrial machinery or aircraft, McGrail-Bateup has pushed the documented boundaries of human acoustics, providing a data point for the maximum volume a human can produce without specialized amplification.
