How do you play Guess the Country?

A country is chosen and kept secret, and you are told which continent it is on before you start. Drag the globe to turn it, scroll to zoom, then tap the country you think it is. Each guess is painted on the globe and told how many kilometres it is from the answer and which way to go, so every wrong guess narrows it down. You get six guesses.

Do I get anything to start from?

Yes. The continent is named for free before your first guess, so you are never guessing blind at a whole planet. Three further hints are there if you want them: the narrower region, then roughly how many people live there, then the capital city.

What do the colours mean?

They are a heat scale. Blue means the country you guessed is more than 5,000 km from the answer, grey-blue under 5,000, gold under 2,500, orange under 1,000, and deep red under 250 km, which means you are almost on top of it.

How does the distance work?

It is the great circle distance between the country you guessed and the secret one, measured across the surface of the Earth in kilometres, together with an arrow and a compass direction pointing from your guess towards the answer.

What do the difficulty levels change?

Which countries can be the answer. Easy uses about sixty countries most people could find, Medium widens it to roughly a hundred and twenty, and Hard puts every country on the globe in play. Each level has its own country of the day.

Is there a new country every day?

Yes, and everyone playing at the same difficulty gets the same country that day. It changes at midnight where you are. New country deals a random one straight away if you want to keep playing.

Yes, completely free with no signup and no account. Your streak is kept in your own browser and never uploaded anywhere.

★ Step right up · a new country every day ★

Guess the country

Turn the globe and tap the country you think it is. Every guess tells you how far away you are and which way to go. Free, no signup, and the whole world runs on your device.

Today's country

Guess the hidden country6 guesses left · Easy · 0 countries

Turn the globe, then tap the country you think it is.

Difficulty

About sixty countries most people could find without much thought.

Hints

The continent is given free at the start. Three more hints a round if you want them: the narrower region, then how many people live there, then the capital city.

Timer

Off by default. Switching a clock on restarts the round's timer, and when it runs out the round is over.

Drag to turn the globe · scroll to zoom · tap a country to guess

No signup · No accounts · Free forever

How a round works

One country is picked and kept secret, and you have six guesses to find it. You are not sent in blind: the continent is named for you before the first guess, so the world is already cut to a fifth. Drag the globe to spin it, scroll to zoom in and out, use the arrows to nudge it, and tap a country to guess. Each guess is painted where it sits and reported back to you two ways: the distance in kilometres from that country to the answer, and a compass arrow pointing from one to the other. Guess Peru and hear that the answer is four thousand kilometres north east, and you have cut the world down to a wedge in a single move.

Reading the heat

The colour on the globe is the same information at a glance. Deep blue is more than five thousand kilometres away, and the scale warms through grey-blue and gold to orange and then a deep red under two hundred and fifty kilometres, which usually means you are looking at a neighbour of the answer. Watching the map warm up as you close in is the whole pleasure of the thing, and it works just as well for somebody who does not know the map as for somebody who does.

Difficulty, hints and the clock

Easy keeps the answer among about sixty countries most people could place, Medium widens it to roughly a hundred and twenty, and Hard puts every country in play. Each level has its own country of the day, so switching level gives you a fresh puzzle rather than the same one. The continent comes free at the start, and three further hints are there if you want them: the narrower region, then roughly how many people live there, then the capital city. The timer stays off unless you ask for it.

Where the map comes from

The borders are Natural Earth's public domain country outlines, drawn onto a real orthographic projection so the globe behaves like a globe rather than a flat map pretending. A handful of territories are drawn because leaving a hole in the map would be worse, but are never the answer, since a quiz is no place to be settling who counts as a country. Distances are great circle distances across the surface of the Earth, which is why they do not match the straight line your eye draws across the screen.

More to play

The word grid is the other daily puzzle here, and the rest of the play section grows from there. If you would rather print something, the word search maker and bingo cards are free on the tools page.