Capital Cities Game turns the classic capitals quiz into a fast, sticky game: a flag and country name appear, and you race to type the capital before the clock runs out. No multiple-choice crutches — you type the answer, and the game is forgiving about spelling and accents so a quick “bogota” counts just as well as “Bogotá”.

There are two ways to play. The Daily Challenge serves the same 10 countries to everyone in the world each day, so your score is directly comparable with friends — and a spoiler-free emoji card makes it easy to share. Endless mode is a pure high-score chase: keep your streak alive against a countdown that tightens the longer you last.

It runs entirely in your browser, free, with no signup. Can you name the capital of Kazakhstan, Australia or Côte d’Ivoire before the timer hits zero? Scroll down and find out.

Capital Cities Game

How to play

A country’s flag and name appear with a shrinking countdown bar.
Type its capital city into the box and press Enter (or tap Guess).
Get it right before the clock runs out to score and move to the next country.
Spelling is forgiving — accents are optional, and alternate or de-facto capitals (like Cape Town for South Africa, or Washington DC) are accepted.
In Endless mode, one miss or timeout ends the run — in the Daily Challenge you always play all 10.

Game modes

Daily Challenge. Ten countries, 15 seconds each, the same set for every player worldwide that day. Misses don’t end the run — you finish all ten for a score out of 10 plus your total time, then share a spoiler-free emoji card. One attempt per day; come back tomorrow for a fresh set.

Endless streak. A never-ending run of random countries where the countdown gets shorter as your streak grows. One wrong answer or timeout ends the game, so it’s all about how long you can keep going. Filter by continent — Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe or Oceania — to focus your practice, and your best streak is saved for each filter.

Your stats — games played, best daily score, best streak and your daily score distribution — are stored locally in your browser. No account, no login.

The geography behind it

There are 193 countries in the game, each with its capital city. Capitals are a favourite trick category for a reason: the largest or most famous city is often not the capital. Australia’s capital is Canberra, not Sydney; Brazil’s is Brasília, not Rio or São Paulo; Turkey’s is Ankara, not Istanbul; Canada’s is Ottawa, not Toronto; and the United States’ is Washington, D.C., not New York.

A few countries genuinely have more than one capital, which is why the game accepts alternatives. South Africa has three — Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontein (judicial). Bolivia splits its capital between Sucre and La Paz, Sri Lanka between Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte and Colombo, and the Netherlands names Amsterdam as its constitutional capital while the government sits in The Hague. Learn a handful of these and your streak will thank you.

Frequently asked questions

Is it the same capitals for everyone today?

Yes. The Daily Challenge picks its 10 countries from the date (in UTC), so every player worldwide gets exactly the same set each day. That’s what makes your score worth sharing — you’re all solving the identical challenge. The set changes at midnight UTC.

Does spelling or accents matter?

No. Answers are checked without accents or punctuation, so “Bogota” and “Bogotá” both work, as does “Reykjavik” for Reykjavík. The game also accepts well-known alternate and de-facto capitals (Cape Town for South Africa, La Paz for Bolivia, Washington DC for the United States, and so on).

How many capitals are there, and where’s the data from?

The game covers 193 countries and their capitals. Country, capital and continent data comes from the Mappr open country dataset (derived from REST Countries), and the flags are from the public-domain flag-icons project. Everything is bundled into the game, so it works instantly with no external calls.

Is it free? Do I need an account?

It’s completely free with no signup, no ads and no login. Your streak and stats are saved privately in your own browser.

How is the streak scored?

In Endless mode your streak goes up by one for each correct answer and ends the moment you miss one or run out of time. The countdown shrinks as your streak climbs, so later answers are under more pressure. Your best streak is saved separately for each continent filter.

Can I just practice without the pressure?

Endless mode with the “All” filter is the closest to open practice — and you can pick a single continent to drill a region. The Daily Challenge is the one-shot, share-your-score mode.