Launching soon · free to play

What is this map showing?

Mystery Metric is a daily puzzle we are building: one world map, shaded by a real statistic, with the legend torn off. You get eight guesses to name what it shows, and every guess tells you how close your idea of the world is to the real data.

The game is not live yet. Join the launch list and we will email you the first puzzle.

Get the first puzzle by email Read the planned rules

How a round will work

The rules below are the planned design. They may be tuned after play-testing.

1
Look at the map
Every country will be shaded in five bands, darkest for the highest values. No legend, no title.
2
Guess the statistic
Pick an indicator from a list of about 300 plain-English world statistics, such as internet users or fertility rate.
3
Follow the clues
Each guess will be scored by how closely its country rankings match the hidden map: cold, warm, hot, scorching or inverse.
4
Solve it in eight
Name the statistic (or one that ranks countries almost identically) within eight guesses. Up to three hints will be available if you are stuck.
5
Read the answer
After every timezone has finished the puzzle, its answer page will show the map with a legend and the cited source.
6
Share without spoilers
A colored result grid will show how you got there, never what the answer was.

Feedback from data, not letters

Each guess will be compared with the hidden statistic using rank correlation (ρ): do the two put countries in the same order? The full method is on how scoring works.

Band	What it means	Threshold
Cold	Little or no relationship to the hidden map	\|ρ\| below 0.3
Warm	Some relationship, in either direction	\|ρ\| from 0.3 to under 0.6
Hot	Ranks countries in a similar order	ρ from 0.6 to under 0.9
Scorching	Very close: you are circling the answer	ρ of 0.9 or more
Inverse	Ranks countries in roughly the opposite order	ρ of −0.6 or less