The Milk Crate Challenge on TikTok Has Already Left Multiple People Injured

There are many TikTok trends that the average user can take part in without worrying that much about injuring themselves. There are certainly some dances that are more challenging than others, but most of those dances aren't likely to land you in the hospital. There are some trends, though, that are much riskier. As it turns out, the milk crate challenge taking over TikTok now is one such risky challenge.

As you might imagine, the milk crate challenge involves collecting quite a few milk crates. Once you have these crates, you're supposed to build a staircase out of the crates. To do this, you take the crates and set them in a line of roughly 8. From there, you reduce the number of crates on each layer by two until you have a top layer of one or two crates. Now, the structure should resemble an up and down staircase.

Once a user is happy with the way the crates are arranged, they make sure that someone is recording, and then they attempt to climb the structure. The goal of the challenge is to climb up one side of the crate staircase and down the other without falling off. The challenge may sound fairly straightforward, but it's definitely harder than it seems.

Some of the videos that have gone most viral on TikTok have featured injuries that came from users attempting the challenge. Some also showed off scars they've acquired after attempting the challenge and hurting themselves in the process. Some have also called out the danger of the challenge on Twitter, with one user writing: “That crate challenge is very dangerous. I saw one where they fell & their neck landed right on the crate.”

Some trends boil up on TikTok over months, but others become huge on the platform basically overnight. The milk crate challenge seems to have started on August 13, when a Facebook user went live showing kids doing the challenge in a park. A day later, a user named Jordan Browne posted a video of a man trying to climb the milk crate stairs.

From there, the trend exploded across TikTok, and it's now become one of the most prominent trends on the platform. Although it's becoming more common, that doesn't mean it's a good idea to participate in the trend yourself. As many of the videos have documented, the trend can lead to some fairly nasty injuries. It may seem like the kind of challenge that anyone can do, but it's not as easy as it looks.

There have been plenty of dangerous trends that took over the internet in the past. Some have involved eating tide pods, while others have involved doing something life-threatening with your body. The milk crate challenge hasn't resulted in any known deaths yet, but there have been plenty of injuries that are more severe than you might expect.