How to play HistoryGuessr
Rules, scoring and strategy · Last updated: 20 August 2026
The short version: you see a photograph, you drop a pin on a map, and you pick a year. A round is worth up to 10,000 points — 5,000 for the place, 5,000 for the year — and the streak multiplier can double that.
One round, four steps
1. Read the photograph
Zoom into the frame and study it. Architecture, clothing, vehicles, signage and the look of the print itself all give away both the place and the year.
2. Drop a pin on the map
Mark the spot you think it is on the world map. Any guess within 25 kilometres of the true location scores the full 5,000 points.
3. Pick a year
Choose a year between 1800 and 2025. The year score decays exponentially on a 20-year scale: an exact hit is 5,000 points, ten years off is 3,033.
4. Submit and read the credits
Submitting reveals the true location and year, along with the frame's title, its creator, its licence and its story. From there you move to the next round.
Scoring, in actual numbers
A round is worth up to 10,000 points: 5,000 for the location and 5,000 for the year. The total is then multiplied by your streak.
Location points
Any guess within 25 kilometres of the true spot scores the full 5,000 — the game does not split hairs with someone who has clearly found the right place. Beyond that the score decays exponentially on a 1,200 km scale:
| 0–25 km | 5,000 points |
|---|---|
| 50 km | 4,796 points |
| 250 km | 4,060 points |
| 1,000 km | 2,170 points |
| 3,000 km | 410 points |
The real lesson here: getting the continent right is worth far more than chasing the exact city and landing on the wrong continent. When in doubt, put the pin in the middle of the region.
Year points
The year score decays exponentially on a 20-year scale:
| Exact year | 5,000 points |
|---|---|
| 3 years off | 4,304 points |
| 10 years off | 3,033 points |
| 25 years off | 1,432 points |
So a decade off is still a decent round; half a century off is not. Getting the right decade is a better target than trying to name the right year.
The streak multiplier
Score 7,500 or more in a round and your streak grows. Each step of the streak adds 20% to the multiplier, capped at 2.0×. This is why a good run is worth much more than the sum of its rounds: three strong rounds back to back can beat four strong rounds scattered about.
What a hint costs
A hint is paid for twice — in the in-game currency (diamonds) and in points:
| Region hint | 500 points off the round |
|---|---|
| Year-band hint | 500 points off the round · opens a 50-year band |
| Expert note | 250 points off the round · gives no answer, only a piece of evidence |
The penalty is applied after the streak multiplier, so a hint costs the same whether or not you are on a run. The expert note being cheaper is deliberate: region and year hints narrow the answer down, while the expert note points at one clue and leaves the deduction to you.
Reading a date out of a photograph
This is what the game actually teaches, and it is entirely learnable. A few markers:
The image itself
Sepia tones and soft edges point at the 19th century. Coarse-grained black and white sits between 1900 and 1940. A colour frame that has faded towards red is most likely a Kodak print from 1960–1980. Clean, saturated colour means after 1990.
Vehicles
Look at the newest car in the street, not the oldest: the photograph is at least as recent as that model's launch. A horse-drawn cart and a motor car in the same frame narrows things sharply to 1900–1925.
Infrastructure
Overhead power lines do not exist before the 1880s. Traffic lights are rare before the 1920s. Asphalt, the shape of street lamps, aerials and satellite dishes are all dated markers. If you can see a satellite dish, you are after 1980.
People
Hats. Until about 1960 most adult men in the street are wearing one; after that they disappear quickly, if not overnight. Hemlines, hairstyles and military uniforms are dated too.
What to look for to place it
The writing system is the first thing to check: Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese or Devanagari eliminates half the world at once. Then vegetation, roof shapes, which side the traffic drives on, the shape of utility poles, the paving. If you can read a single word on a sign, you have usually found the country.
What changes by mode
Classic
Five rounds, then a final score. No clock — look as long as you like.
Live 1v1 duel
You are matched with a real opponent through Game Center. Same frames, 45 seconds per round. Speed becomes a tactic here: spending 40 seconds on a perfect guess does not always beat the good guess your opponent made in 15.
Survival
Three lives. The passing threshold starts at 4,000 and rises by 250 every round, stopping at 8,000. Hints mean something different here: wasteful early, life-saving late.
Challenge a friend
You play first, then send the link. Your friend plays the same frames against your real guesses and your real times — so the score you send is not a number that can be edited afterwards, it is a match that was actually played.
Three rules for a beginner
- Continent first, city second. The wrong continent ends a round; the middle of the right continent does not.
- Think in decades. Don't try to say "1937" — say "the thirties" and pick the middle.
- Save the hint for when you are stuck. 500 points is cheap in a bad round and expensive in a good one.