GeoGuessr

These include writing systems, architecture, left- and right-hand traffic, flags, vehicle registration plates, landscapes and vegetation. This educational aspect enhances players' understanding of different cultures and regions around the world. Although initially seen as a novelty game, a competitive scene dedicated to precise high-level play arose, culminating in the GeoGuessr World Championship, which was first held in 2023 and has been held annually since, with increasing prize pools.

The game was designed by Swedish IT consultant Anton Wallén in 2013. Wallen loved to visit faraway locations on Google Street View, and initially designed a program to generate a random location in Street View before deciding to add a competitive element. The game's development took approximately two weeks' work, using Backbone.js and the Google Maps API. In April 2013, according to The New Yorker, Wallén posted on Reddit and said that he "was fiddling around with Backbone and Google Maps API v3 and decided to make a small application" and asked for feedback. Wallén posted the completed game to Google Chrome Experiments on 10 May 2013. Initially released as a browser game, mobile apps for GeoGuessr were later developed for Android and iOS. GeoGuessr AB is located in Stockholm.

• Illustration — The GeoGuessr "classic" view

The "classic" GeoGuessr game mode consists of five rounds, each displaying a different street view location for the player to guess on a map. The player then receives a score of up to 5,000 points depending on how accurate their guess was, up to 25,000 points for a perfect game. Games may be user-generated or randomly generated from a pool of locations. Alternative game modes include: • Battle Royale, a multiplayer last-one-standing game. • Duels, a two-player head-to-head competition. • Streaks, where players identify countries or U.S. states until they guess incorrectly. • Explorer Mode, a single-player game where medals are awarded for accuracy in individual countries • Team Duels, a variation of Duels played between two teams of two players. • Campaign, where players travel the world and its various cities while collecting tips to help them determine where they are. In 2022, GeoGuessr acquired the geography quiz site Seterra, and implemented a quiz mode combining standard street view gameplay with trivia questions.

GeoGuessr includes three difficulties: • Moving: Players are able to move, pan, and zoom into the Google Street View imagery. • No Move: Players can pan and zoom but not move. • No Move, Pan, or Zoom (NMPZ): players are given a static image.

The game's HUD primarily features the Google Street View imagery, as well as a compass. Users can control the movement, panning, and zooming of the image, although GeoGuessr allows any of these features to be disabled for harder gameplay. An inset map, using Google Maps's standard overlay, allows players to place a pin to make their guess.

Users may interpret their location from the photographs by reading road signage, memorizing utility poles, analyzing architecture, finding the relative position of the Sun, identifying flora and soil types, studying what various landscapes of the world look like, observing license plates and learning diacritics specific to particular writing systems among many other categories of clues. Players can also make use of Street View metadata to ascertain their location – for example, the Street View vehicle that captured imagery in Ghana contained a roof rack with distinct black tape on one end. As the competitive scene expanded and the game's strategies became increasingly sophisticated, community-created educational resources emerged to document recurring geographic clues and Street View characteristics.

Users may play GeoGuessr without a subscription with limited functionality, which means they can only play a certain amount freely, and do not have access to custom maps or the competitive game modes. Subscription to a Pro account allows unlimited play and community functionality, and "elite" membership unlocks extra avatars, loot, and emotes.

In July 2023, researchers at Stanford University developed a machine learning tool that was able to locate 40% of GeoGuessr locations with an accuracy of or better. After three attempts, the model was able to beat Trevor Rainbolt, a top-ranked player. In a preprint, the authors noted that such models could positively impact climate research, as successful geolocation of an image often requires a correct climate classification of the locale: if artificial intelligence can detect that several images come from the same region, feeding the tool with pictures could provide inexpensive data on how climate change affects that region. The study stated that quick recognition of outdoor locations could also have privacy and security implications.

• Illustration — GeoGuessr World Cup 2023 top 4 players: Consus, Blinky, Radu and Fau On 2 October 2022 GeoGuessr co-sponsored Ligue Intercommu's "GeoGuessr Team World Cup", a LAN party streamed on Twitch. It was commentated by streamers including Antoine Daniel and Etoiles. The competition was won by the team "Speed Plonkers", which featured the players Blinky (France), Kodiak (Germany), and Maccem (Sweden). They defeated the team "A Community Team" featuring Radu C (USA), Toro (USA) and Mate Potato (India) Three GeoGuessr World Championships tournaments have been held. In the inaugural iteration in October 2023, Dutch player Consus defeated French player Blinky in the final. American player Collin "Poli" Hu qualified for the tournament at age 15, becoming the youngest qualifier in World Championship history. The second World Cup was held in September 2024, with Blinky winning 3–2 over American player MK. In 2025, the event was renamed to the GeoGuessr World Championship, as it was announced that the third event would be the first to take place outside Sweden. In August 2025, American player Radu C defeated Hungarian player Debre 3-2 at the K.B. Hallen Arena in Copenhagen. On 15 May 2025, GeoGuessr announced its participation in the 2025 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The decision faced backlash from the game's community, with players citing concerns over Saudi Arabia's human rights record. On 21 May, creators of major world maps made their content unplayable in protest. Following sustained community opposition, GeoGuessr withdrew from the event the next day, with CEO Daniel Antell stating the company had "got it wrong". The withdrawal made GeoGuessr the first game to leave the Esports World Cup due to community pressure.

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