History Guessing Games

Photo games and fact games

History games split into two groups. Photo games, like TimeGuessr, show a real picture and ask when, and sometimes where, it was taken. Fact games give you events, people or headlines and ask you to put them in order or match them to a year.

Clues hidden in old photos

• Cars and phones can date a street scene to within a few years.
• Black and white points to an older photo for most news pictures, and faded warm color film often points to the 1970s and 1980s.
• Signs, adverts and number plates show the language and often the country.
• Hair and clothes move in waves. If you can tell the 1960s from the 1980s by a haircut, you already have a head start.

Timeline games

When you sort events, start with the ones you know and use them as anchors. A war, a moon landing or a famous invention gives you a fixed point, and the unknown events go before or after it. Many of these games give points for being close, so a near guess still counts.

Learning as you play

The best part of a daily history game is the answer screen. Two lines about a photo you got wrong stick far better than a page in a textbook, and after a few weeks you will notice your guesses landing closer.