Frequently asked questions
Everything you might want to know about MapDash. Still stuck? Get in touch.
What is MapDash?
MapDash is a free daily geography puzzle. Each day a country is hidden. You see one clue at a time (continent, then population, then neighbors, then capital, then famous-for) and have 5 guesses to identify the country.
How is MapDash different from Worldle?
Worldle shows you a country outline and asks you to identify it from shape + distance hints to your guesses. MapDash uses text clues — geography, demographics, neighbors, capital, culture. It rewards factual familiarity rather than visual map memory.
How is MapDash different from Geoguessr?
Geoguessr drops you into Street View and asks you to guess where you are. MapDash is a shorter daily puzzle (1-3 minutes) with a single hidden country per day. Both reward geography knowledge but the format is different.
When does the daily puzzle reset?
Every day at 00:00 UTC. In US Pacific that's 4:00 PM the previous day; in Eastern, 7:00 PM the previous day; in London, midnight.
How many countries are in the rotation?
59. We focus on well-known countries from every continent — no obscure micro-states.
Can I type "USA" or "Holland" or "UK"?
Yes. Common aliases are accepted: USA / US / America / United States all match. So do UK / Britain / Great Britain, Holland / Netherlands, Czechia / Czech Republic, Korea / South Korea, UAE / United Arab Emirates, Türkiye / Turkey.
Why only 5 guesses?
The clue sequence is designed to halve the candidate set each step. A player with general world knowledge should solve most puzzles in 3-4 guesses with 5 clues maximum. We may tune the budget after seeing real player performance.
Can I play past puzzles?
Yes. The archive includes every past puzzle since launch. Archive plays count toward your win-rate and play count but do not affect your streak.
How do streaks work?
Your streak goes up by 1 each day you solve today's puzzle. Skip a day or fail to solve, and your streak resets. Your best-ever streak is tracked separately.
Where are my stats stored?
In your browser's localStorage only. We have no accounts, no server-side storage, and no third-party tracking other than Google Analytics for aggregate traffic.
How do I share my result?
Tap Share on the result screen. MapDash copies a Wordle-style emoji grid to your clipboard — one square per guess.
Is MapDash free?
Yes, completely free. Display ads on the result screen, archive list, and content pages. No signup, no paywall.
Where does the country data come from?
Our country dataset is hand-curated based on public sources: World Bank for population, official government sources for capitals, and CIA World Factbook / Wikipedia for geographic facts. Populations are rounded to nearest million and are 2022-2024 figures.
Does MapDash work on mobile?
Yes. The autocomplete input works on touch devices and the layout adapts to phone screens.
Who built MapDash?
MapDash is part of a small network of independent daily-puzzle games. We build games we want to play and keep them free with display ads.