Country Guesser
Can you recognise a country from its shape alone? Each wrong guess tells you how far away the answer is and in which direction, and unlocks another clue.
How to Play
- Look at the outline of the mystery country and type your guess. Suggestions appear as you type.
- A wrong guess shows the distance from your country to the answer, the direction to head in, and a closeness percentage.
- Each wrong guess unlocks a clue: first the region, then the capital city, then the flag.
- You have five guesses. Daily gives everyone the same country each day. Practice picks a random one.
- After the daily game, Share copies your result as coloured squares and arrows, without giving the answer away.
Tips & Strategy
- Coastlines, islands and long borders are the giveaway features of most outlines.
- Use the direction arrow to narrow down your next guess, rather than guessing at random.
- A closeness above 90% means you're in the right neighbourhood: try the countries next door.
- Distances are measured between points near each country's middle, so neighbouring countries can still be a few hundred kilometres apart.
Frequently Asked Questions
166 countries: the member states of the United Nations, plus Palestine as a UN observer state, except for a few island and city states too small to show on the map used. Disputed areas and dependent territories aren't included.
Outlines are simplified from Natural Earth, a public-domain map dataset, so very small details are smoothed away. Flags come from the open-source flag-icons collection (MIT licence).
To keep shapes recognisable, parts of a country far from its main landmass, such as overseas regions, are left out of the silhouette.
It's the great-circle distance between your guess and the answer, scaled so that 100% is the same place and 0% is the opposite side of the world.
At midnight in your own time zone. Everyone gets the same country on the same date.
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