A four-year-old boy from the Midlands has taken the internet by storm, showcasing a staggering talent for numbers that has left fans of Channel 4's Countdown in awe. Acer Gibson has become an online sensation, with clips of him solving the show's complex number puzzles racking up more than 30 million views in just over a fortnight.
The Viral Videos That Captured a Nation
The remarkable story began when Acer's father, Liam Gibson, 36, from Shepshed near Loughborough, started filming his son. In the now-famous footage, Acer is seen standing in front of the family's living room television, tackling the same numerical conundrums faced by the show's adult contestants. To widespread amazement, the preschooler consistently found the solutions in a matter of seconds, often beating the players on screen.
One particularly popular TikTok video, posted on December 4, showed Acer calculating how to reach a target of 872 using the numbers 100, 75, 10, 7, 6, and 4. He solved it within the 30-second time limit, then turned to his dad and quipped, "Now let's see if they copied us." The contestants, as it happened, did not get the answer in time.
Earning Praise from Countdown's Rachel Riley
The viral clips did not go unnoticed. They soon caught the eye of Rachel Riley, the Oxford-educated maths whiz who presents the numbers segment on the long-running Channel 4 programme. So impressed was Riley that she sent Acer his own personalised mathematical challenges. True to form, the little boy solved each one within the allotted half-minute.
Riley joked about the young prodigy's potential, telling his father, "I'll have to watch my back in a few years." For Acer, the admiration is mutual. When asked about his future ambitions, he stated, "Actually I want to do the numbers on the Countdown show. Yeah, I want Rachel Riley's job."
A Lifelong Aptitude for Numbers
According to his parents, Liam and Holly, Acer's extraordinary numerical ability was evident from a very young age. He could count from one to ten and back down again by the time he was just one year old. By age two, he had memorised both of his parents' mobile phone numbers.
His skills accelerated rapidly. At three years old, he was writing down the square roots of numbers like 196. Now four, he has progressed from number-based toys to working through maths textbooks designed for children in Years 3, 4, and 5 – pupils up to ten years old.
His father also revealed to The Sunday Times that Acer possesses a phenomenal memory, recalling the names of characters from YouTube videos watched in different languages. What began as a bit of fun at home – "I wasn't even playing it myself. I said, 'Come on, let's make a video.' I wasn't expecting it to take off," Liam recalled – has turned into a global phenomenon, showcasing a truly mind-blowing young talent.
