Guess the State is a daily geography game: we show you the outline of a mystery US state, and you have six tries to name it. After every wrong guess you get three hints that point you toward the answer: how far away your guess was, an arrow showing which direction to look, and a proximity percentage that tells you how warm you are getting.

Everyone in the world gets the same state each day, so you can compare results with friends. When you finish, tap Share to copy a spoiler-free emoji grid of your round, Wordle style. The game tracks your streak and win percentage right in your browser, with no login and no app to install.

Done with today’s state? Switch to endless mode and keep playing random states as long as you like. It is the perfect way to learn all 50 outlines, from the unmistakable boot of Louisiana to the near-identical rectangles of Colorado and Wyoming.

Guess the State

How to play

Look at the silhouette. The mystery state’s outline is drawn to fill the frame, so think about shape, not size.
Type a state name (or its two-letter postal code) and pick it from the list to lock in your guess.
Read the hints. Each wrong guess shows the distance from your guess to the answer, an arrow pointing from your guess toward the mystery state, and a proximity percentage.
Use the hints to zero in. You have six guesses in total.
Win or lose, the answer is revealed on a real US map along with the state’s nickname. Then share your result, or head to endless mode for more.

Game modes

Daily challenge

One mystery state per day, the same for every player worldwide. The puzzle flips at midnight UTC, your finished round stays on screen if you reload, and your streak grows with every daily you solve. This is the mode behind the shareable emoji grid.

Endless practice

Random states back to back, as many rounds as you want. Endless rounds never touch your daily streak or stats, so it is a risk-free way to study the tricky ones: the Four Corners squares, the New England cluster, and the Midwest look-alikes.

How the hints work

Distances are measured from the center of your guessed state to the center of the answer, computed from each state’s actual geometry. The arrow shows the compass direction from your guess toward the answer, in eight steps from north around to northwest. The proximity percentage is scaled to the longest possible distance between any two state centers (Hawaii to Maine, about 5,100 miles), so 90 percent and up means you are practically next door, while single digits mean you are on the wrong side of the country.

The geography behind the outlines

State shapes are a crash course in American history. Eastern states follow rivers, coastlines, and colonial-era survey lines, which is why West Virginia looks like a splash and Maryland narrows to a ribbon barely two miles wide. Western states were drawn later, mostly along straight lines of latitude and longitude, giving us the rectangles of Colorado and Wyoming and the long panhandles of Oklahoma, Texas, and Idaho. Once you start noticing the difference between river borders and survey borders, silhouettes get much easier to read.

A few shapes are famous enough to guess in one: Texas, Florida, California, and Michigan’s two-peninsula mitten. The real skill is in the middle of the pack, telling Kansas from Nebraska by the notch in Nebraska’s southwest corner, or Vermont from New Hampshire by which way the wedge points. Daily play builds that recognition surprisingly fast.

Frequently asked questions

Is it the same state for everyone today?

Yes. The daily state is chosen from the calendar date in UTC, so every player worldwide gets the same puzzle on the same day, and results are directly comparable. A new state arrives at midnight UTC.

What do the arrow and the percentage mean?

The arrow points from the state you guessed toward the mystery state. The percentage is proximity: 100 percent is a direct hit, and the scale runs down to zero at the greatest possible distance between two states. Both are computed from the centers of the states.

Can I keep playing after the daily puzzle?

Yes. Endless mode serves random states with the same hints, as many rounds as you like. It never affects your daily streak or stats.

Which states are included?

All 50 US states. The District of Columbia and the territories are not in the rotation, so every silhouette you see is a state you can name.

Are my stats saved? Do I need an account?

No account needed. Your streak, win percentage, and guess distribution are stored locally in your browser and never leave your device. Clearing your browser data resets them.

Where does the map data come from?

State outlines and the reveal map come from the us-atlas project, based on US Census Bureau cartographic boundary files in the public domain. The game runs entirely in your browser with free, open data and no tracking.