Closest City is a free daily geography game with one simple goal: find the mystery city in as few guesses as you can. Type any city in the world and it drops a pin on the map, colored by how close it is to the hidden answer. Pale means you are far away; deep red means you are burning hot.

Every guess also comes with hard numbers: the distance to the mystery city, an arrow pointing in its direction, and a closeness percentage. Chain those clues together, narrow the search from continent to country to city, and close in on the answer. Guesses are unlimited, so the bragging rights come from solving it in the fewest.

Everyone in the world gets the same mystery city each day, which makes results easy to compare: finish the round, copy your spoiler-free emoji result, and challenge your friends to beat it. A practice mode with unlimited random cities is included, and your streak and stats are saved on your device.

Closest City Game

How to play

Type any city into the guess box and pick it from the list. You can choose from more than 1,200 cities worldwide.
Watch the pin land on the world map. Its color shows how close that city is to the mystery city: pale pink is cold, deep red is boiling.
Read the clues on each guess row: the distance, the arrow pointing toward the answer, and the closeness percentage.
Keep guessing. There is no limit, and the hottest guess so far is flagged so you always know your best lead.
Find the city to win, then share your emoji result and keep your daily streak alive.

Game modes

Daily: one mystery city per day, the same for every player worldwide. The answer changes at 00:00 UTC, your result is locked in once you finish, and consecutive daily wins build your streak.

Endless: a fresh random city every round, as many rounds as you like. Perfect for practice, and it never touches your daily streak.

How the heat and hints work

The closeness percentage scales distance against 20,000 km, roughly half the Earth’s circumference, so 0% means the exact opposite side of the planet and 100% means you found it. The pin colors follow the same scale, and the direction arrow always points from your guess toward the mystery city. If you are stuck after 8 guesses, an optional hint reveals which country the city is in; using it marks your shared result with a small light bulb, so honest solves still stand out.

The geography behind it

The game plays over more than 1,200 of the world’s most significant cities, from megacities like Tokyo and São Paulo to national capitals and famous regional hubs, based on the Natural Earth populated places dataset. The daily answer is always drawn from a curated pool of around 330 recognizable cities, so you are never asked to find an obscure town, but you can use any city on Earth as a stepping stone. Distances are measured city center to city center along the surface of the globe, which is why playing Closest City quietly teaches you real geography: after a few rounds you start to feel how far Nairobi really is from Cairo, and which direction Lisbon lies from Warsaw.

Frequently asked questions

Is it the same city for everyone today?

Yes. The daily mystery city is seeded from the UTC date, so every player on the planet gets the same challenge on the same day. That is what makes shared results comparable. The city changes at midnight UTC.

How many guesses do I get?

Unlimited. Closest City is not about running out of tries; it is about solving the puzzle in as few guesses as possible. Your average and best guess counts are tracked in your stats.

What does the percentage on each guess mean?

It is a closeness score: 100% is the mystery city itself, and 0% would be a city on the exact opposite side of the world, about 20,000 km away. It is calculated from the real distance between the two city centers.

What is a good strategy?

Start with widely spaced cities on different continents to find the warm region, then follow the arrows and distances to triangulate. Two or three well-chosen guesses usually pin the answer down to one country; capital cities make excellent probes.

Do I need an account or app?

No. The game runs entirely in your browser on desktop and mobile, with no login, no app install, and no tracking. Your streak and stats are stored locally on your device.

Where does the city data come from?

City locations and populations come from the public-domain Natural Earth populated places dataset, and the world map is drawn from world-atlas (Natural Earth) geometry. All data is free and open, bundled into the game itself.