Alexis Kestler
GeoGuessr is a popular educational game that launched in 2013, allowing players to test their geographical knowledge. It was previously offered for free, but due to Google‘s decision to increase Maps API pricing, it transitioned to a paid service in 2019.
In response, many developers switched to Google Maps alternatives like OpenStreetMap while GeoGuessr continued using Google‘s mapping. But with the costly fee, many GeoGuessr players are looking for the best free similar geography games to play instead.
If you count yourself among them, we‘ve compiled a list of 15 geography trivia games akin to GeoGuessr that you can play right now.
About GeoGuessr and its Popular Player
As aforementioned, GeoGuessr is a geography-based game using Google Street View to test players‘ ability in pinpointing their location across the globe. Players are presented with a map and during gameplay have access to different options.
Trevor Rainbolt, better known as Rainbolt, is an American GeoGuessr player. Rainbolt posts videos showing locations of popular music videos and viral videos. On TikTok he uploads his videos and short-form content under the handle “Georainbolt”. Additionally, he posts videos on YouTube.
During the pandemic, Rainbolt started honing his GeoGuessr skills by watching for 4-5 hours daily, focusing on telltale signs like road signs and utility poles, and watching other players‘ live streams.
What are the Objectives of GeoGuessr?
GeoGuessr can be a great tool for teachers to generate student interest in other countries‘ cultures and landscapes, and develop critical thinking skills for analyzing geographical and cultural scenery.
As players try solving problems or beating a friend‘s high score, they naturally retrieve geographical distinctions, ecosystems, inhabitants, and more. For instance, they may first determine which hemisphere they‘re viewing based on the sun‘s positioning south/north to the camera. Players can also base guesses on environmental clues like soil, foliage, or weather.
Furthermore, GeoGuessr enables creating custom maps. This helps students gain foundational geographical knowledge and exposure to unfamiliar places. Teachers can also encourage students to build maps holding personal significance.
Through gameplay, students develop critical transferable skills like visual analysis, locating/interpreting evidence, and research competencies.
Tips for Excelling at GeoGuessr
You can excel at GeoGuessr using the following tips and tricks:
Eliminate Countries
Having a basic grasp of which countries/regions Google Street View doesn‘t cover will enable eliminating them and honing your GeoGuessr skills.
In a typical game, you‘ll likely end up in massive countries like USA, Russia or Australia. Smaller countries have lower probability of showing up.
Use Shadows to Locate Places
Examine the surrounding shadows to deduce which part of the world you‘re in. This is clever. Check the compass on your GeoGuessr screen for the north direction (red point). Observe where shadows are falling and act accordingly. If the shadow tip points north, the sunlight‘s arriving from the south – indicating you‘re likely in the Northern hemisphere.
Analyze Scripts and Languages
The scripts and languages encountered can greatly indicate your global location. For instance, seeing Cyrillic script use likely means you‘re in Russia. Many other languages like Bulgarian, Kazakh, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Belarusian and dozens more also use the Cyrillic alphabet.
Check Out the Cars
Get used to the idea that traffic appears differently across countries. Spotting mostly motorbikes/scooters allows safely ruling out USA. A sprinkling of scooters may mean a European country.
Being surrounded by numerous scooters likely puts you in East/Southeast Asia. However, seeing mostly small engine motorbikes (100-150cc) could mean South America.
Guessing Locations From Images
This method is somewhat similar to GeoGuessr but with a twist – you have to guess the location after seeing an image. There are several free GeoGuessr alternatives serving this purpose.
City Guesser
City Guesser is a geography-based browser game offering a unique traveling/guessing experience worldwide. Launched on August 13, 2020, it has attracted countless geography buffs daily.
City Guesser‘s urban settings and moving clips provide far richer information than GeoGuessr, which often places you along empty rural roads with just the foliage and weather as clues.
Get Lost
Get Lost is a geographical exploration game using procedurally-generated street maps. Unlike the other options, you must create an account before playing this game – it isn‘t open-and-play.
Analyze the street corner images for any clues pinpointing your location. Click the map wherever you think it is to make an educated guess. There are 5 rounds in total. Your game score depends on how close your guess is to the actual revealed location. The scoring system is pretty straightforward, with each round‘s maximum currently set at 5,000 points.
GuessWhere Challenge
The GuessWhere Challenge is an awesome (geo challenge) quiz game about guessing random worldwide venues. It transports you to an unknown location anywhere globally. The game displays a panoramic view for you to locate on a map. The closer your guess is to the actual answer, the more points you gain.
There are 5 rounds held across 5 different places. Can you complete the geo quest, top the leaderboard and earn all achievements? Test your geographical knowledge, virtually travel, discover new sites, and take on thrilling geo challenges!
Where Am I
Where Am I is another guessing game with a simple premise. You start in a random location worldwide, equipped with just a Google Street View snapshot to tweak for deducing your whereabouts.
Hover your mouse into the inset globe to zoom out the world map. Later, click the corresponding map area representing your guessed photo location. It will instantly reveal how much your assumption deviates from the actual setting. Access the website on a desktop browser to try it. You can also play on mobile browsers but a larger screen aids spotting the location better.
World Geography Games
World Geography Games provides entertaining, informative quizzes for kids to play. Students, adults and even seniors can use these to test and improve their geographical knowledge. Their online quizzes test your wits regarding an array of global countries.
You‘ll find all relevant information conveniently in one place – whether studying for an exam, wanting a free resource on an interactive whiteboard, or looking for your next vacation. This site provides various free educational tools potentially helpful for elementary/high school instructors, homeschooling, homework help and tutoring.
Sheppard Software
Playing the geography games from Sheppard Software helps develop a mental map of the world‘s continents, countries, cities and sceneries.
The site covers quizzes on diverse countries and continents globally including Europe, Africa, USA, different US regions, African capitals, Mexico, the Caribbean, Middle East, Central/South America and more. Games are often structured into levels, requiring completing the current level first to unlock subsequent ones.
Seterra
Seterra enables learning geography while having fun. It delivers multiple choice questions on the geographies of every country and continent worldwide. Using this platform, you learn numerous topics like national capitals, cities, rivers and lakes.
Besides the quizzes, Seterra provides some printable geography PDF maps of different countries and cities.
With 9 gameplay modes, Seterra offers more variety than GeoGuessr. The modes are: learning, show all, multiple, choice, pin, pins hard, type, type simple and type with auto-complete. Thus Seterra is an enhanced alternative to GeoGuessr.
playGeography
playGeography incorporates several intriguing world geography maps from TeachMe – a unique platform with educational games/apps boasting millions of users. playGeography provides up to 92 different geographical maps and over 12,000 varying questions.
Similar to GeoGuessr, you can pick 1 of 5 gameplay styles on playGeography. However, the game types on both platforms are somewhat different. You can tailor each game‘s challenge level to suit your preferences. Also every game has a time limit, earning more points for quicker responses.
Ducksters
Ducksters is a geography-focused trivia and quiz game covering global places like all continents, capitals, national flags and more. It also includes all US states with individual state maps, capitals and flags. The site provides diverse activities such as word searches, map word searches, crossword puzzles and more.
The puzzles can be played online actively or downloaded/printed for school or kid parties. Ducksters also has geography word searches – challenging players to find all hidden geography terms of a particular place within the word search grid. There‘s an online playable game version enabling comparing your outcomes with other players.
GeoPuzzle
GeoPuzzle enables learning country/state names and locations enjoyably. After signing up, you get access to over 100,000 selectable areas for doing puzzles. To start playing, pick a region from the map/list and examine its flag, coat of arms and possibly more info to aid your geography studies.
World Map Quiz
Available on Android and Windows, World Map Quiz supports 16 languages. If interested in a stellar educational asset or just improving your map glance location skills, grab this app quickly.
Its various game modes can teach country locations alongside country flags and capitals. Additionally there‘s a cities and oceans mode! Gameplay modes in World Map Quiz include: Country name, Elimination, Capital mode, Flag mode, Guess the name, City name and Oceans/seas.
Map Box
An essential geo-guessing site built by Mapbox + OpenStreetMap + Wikidata + Svelte collaboration, Map Box greets you with a simple UI showing one button saying “Let‘s get started”.
Clicking it presents a map on the right giving you 4 options in an MCQ format. It‘s a simple map quiz where it shows if you‘re correct afterward. This site‘s differentiator is the informative country details it provides post-result.
Zoomtastic
A simple yet highly educational GeoGuessr alternative, Zoomtastic needs no signup or account creation. You‘re shown a random country‘s picture and have just 30 seconds to determine its name. Unlike GeoGuessr boasting 4 gameplay types, Zoomtastic only offers 1.
The map progressively zooms out as the timer ticks down, providing more clues assisting you. In the final 20 seconds, pick the right option from the given four choices. You can play unlimitedly without any time constraints. If having a high score, you‘ll be deemed among the game‘s finest players. Additionally your name gets listed on the site‘s top 100 players.
Conclusion
All the above games provide GeoGuessr-like experiences focused on testing geographical knowledge, albeit some smoother than others. However this commonality of geography-testing makes them viable alternatives you should check out.
You can next read about the best Google Maps alternatives.
