Geography games, free and without an account

These started as something for our members to do between letters. A pen pal in another country makes you curious about the rest of the map, and a few minutes with a flag or a blank outline turns out to be a good way to feed that curiosity. Anyone can play them — you only need an account if you want your score on the board.

Today's flags

Twenty flags, dealt from the date, so everybody playing today gets the same twenty. Half the rounds show a flag and ask for the country; the other half name a country and ask you to pick its flag, which is the harder of the two. Because the deck is shared you can paste your result to a friend — as coloured squares, so it doesn't spoil anything — and they can play the same round.

Country quiz

Ten questions about the practical side of other countries: capitals, currencies, the languages people speak and which side of the road they drive on. It is the kind of thing that is worth knowing before you write to someone for the first time.

Higher or lower

Two countries, one question: does the second have more people or fewer? Keep calling it right to build a streak. Population numbers are one of the easiest things to get badly wrong — most people are surprised by at least one pair within the first few rounds.

Pin the country

We name a country; you find it on a map with no labels. The closer your pin lands, the more points you score. It is a good test of the parts of the world you think you know, and an even better one of the parts you don't.

Geo guesser

A real street-level photo from somewhere on Earth. Look at the road markings, the plants, the architecture and the light, then drop a pin where you think it was taken. The photos come from Panoramax, an open, community-built collection of street imagery.

Why a pen pal site has games

Letters here are slow on purpose, and a good conversation has gaps in it. The games give those gaps something to do, and each right answer links to what members in that country have written about where they live. If you find yourself wondering what everyday life is like in the place you just pinned, that is exactly what a pen pal is for.