Yesterday on Earth: a daily news map game

Yesterday on Earth is a free daily geography game from Read the World. Every day you get five real things that happened yesterday, from the day's strongest earthquake and a rocket launch to the hottest big city and stories from the news, and you pin each one on a world map with no labels.

It is a quick daily puzzle for anyone who likes maps, news and geography trivia. The closer your pin, the higher your score.

How to play the news map game

  1. Read the clue for each of the five events.
  2. Tap the map to drop your pin. Pinch or scroll to zoom and drag to pan.
  3. Lock in your pin to see the real location and how far away you were. Each event is worth up to 1,000 points.
  4. New events arrive every day at 00:00 UTC. Share your score and keep your streak going.

Prefer guessing countries? Play today's Read the World puzzle and guess the country from what it read on Wikipedia yesterday.

Frequently asked questions

What is Yesterday on Earth?

Yesterday on Earth is a free daily news map game. Every day you get five real things that happened yesterday (UTC), such as the day's strongest earthquake, a rocket launch, the hottest big city or a story from the news, and you pin each one on a world map.

How does scoring work?

Lock in your pin to see the real spot and how far away you were. Each event scores up to 1,000 points, and the closer you are the more you score: 1,500 km away is worth about 370. A perfect day is 5,000 points.

Where do the events come from?

Clues are generated automatically from public data: USGS earthquakes, Open-Meteo city temperatures, rocket launches from The Space Devs, the Wikipedia Current events portal and GDACS. They are kept light: no conflicts, crime or disasters with victims.

When do new events arrive?

New events arrive every day at 00:00 UTC. Finishing yesterday's events keeps your streak going, and sharing your score earns a streak freeze.

Is it free?

Yes. Yesterday on Earth is free, needs no account, and the map has no labels, on purpose.

Is there another daily game?

Yes. In Read the World you guess a mystery country from the five Wikipedia articles it read most yesterday, in six tries.