How to play: tips for three daily geography games
Read the World has three free daily geography games. Each takes a few minutes, a new puzzle comes out every day at 00:00 UTC, and you don't need an account. Here is how each one works, plus the tips that help most.
Read the World: guess the country from what it read
Every day there is one mystery country. You see the five Wikipedia articles people in that country read most yesterday, and you have six guesses to name the country. Each wrong guess tells you the distance to the answer, the compass direction, and whether your guess shares a border with it. After three wrong guesses, the continent is revealed.
Tips for Read the World
- Look for local names first. A football club, a TV show, a politician or a singer who is only famous in one country is usually the strongest clue on the list.
- Check the calendar. National holidays, elections and anniversaries often top a country's chart on the day they happen.
- Don't over-trust global news. A worldwide story, such as a big award or a celebrity death, can top many countries' lists at once. Use it to narrow the region, not to pick the country.
- Translations are a hint. When a title has no English article, the game shows a machine translation. That tells you the topic is mostly local.
- Use the first guess to find the region. If you have no idea, guess a large, central country. The distance and direction then point you toward the right part of the world.
Only countries whose main Wikipedia language belongs mostly to that one country can be the answer, so the charts really reflect one place. The in-game help lists every country in the rotation.
Yesterday on Earth: pin yesterday's events on the map
You get five real things that happened yesterday (UTC): for example the day's strongest earthquake, a rocket launch, the hottest big city or a story from the news. Drop a pin on a world map with no labels, lock it in, and see how far away you were. Each event is worth up to 1,000 points, so a perfect day scores 5,000.
Tips for Yesterday on Earth
- Earthquakes follow plate edges. Most strong quakes happen around the Pacific "Ring of Fire": Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Chile, Alaska and the Pacific islands. A pin on a plate boundary is rarely far off.
- Rockets launch from a handful of places. Florida, Texas, California, Kazakhstan, French Guiana, China, India, Japan and New Zealand cover most launches.
- Think about the season. The hottest big city is usually somewhere it is summer, and often in a desert or near the equator.
- Zoom before you lock in. Pinch or scroll to zoom. Being a few hundred kilometres closer adds real points.
Play today's Yesterday on Earth
Country Clues: find the country from its Wikipedia article
You start with one sentence from the mystery country's Wikipedia article, with the name blacked out. Each wrong guess unlocks another, easier sentence, and every guess is compared with the answer: continent, population, land area and how many people read its English Wikipedia article, plus distance and direction. You have eight guesses.
Tips for Country Clues
- Read the first sentence closely. Memberships (such as the EU, ASEAN or the African Union), rivers, mountain ranges and historical periods narrow things down fast.
- Use the arrows like a search. If the population arrow points up from a mid-sized country, jump to a much bigger one next rather than a slightly bigger one.
- Combine area and population. A big area with a small population points to deserts, tundra or rainforest; a small, crowded country points somewhere else entirely.
- Watch the Readers number. If it is far higher than you expect for the country's size, the country was probably in the news.
Frequently asked questions
What time do the daily puzzles reset?
All three games get a new puzzle at 00:00 UTC. That is midnight in London in winter (1 a.m. in summer), 7 p.m. the evening before in New York in winter (8 p.m. in summer), and 9 a.m. in Tokyo. The game shows a countdown to the next one.
How do streaks and streak freezes work?
Finish today's puzzle to keep your streak going. Sharing your result earns a streak freeze (one a day, and you can hold up to two). If you miss a day, a freeze is used automatically so your streak survives.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. The games run in any modern browser on phones, tablets and computers, and you can add the site to your home screen to open it like an app.
Do I need an account?
No. Your progress, streak and stats are saved on your device. A free account is optional: it adds leaderboards, private friend groups and syncing between devices. The privacy page explains what an account keeps.