Games like MapTap

If MapTap has become part of your morning, here is what else scratches the same itch, and how each one differs.

MapTap is a free daily geography game. Its own site describes it as five world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories, and NPR noted that the globe has no lines dividing countries. Each day it names a place and you rotate the globe and tap as close to it as you can. Every tap scores up to 100 by distance, and later rounds are multiplied, for a day out of 1,000 (TechCrunch called it “my new Wordle”). It has iOS and Android apps, an optional free account for streaks and leaderboards, and a paid MapTap+ tier that adds extras such as replaying missed days.

So what makes a game “like MapTap”? A short daily puzzle that everyone shares, a map or globe you have to read for yourself, and a score you can compare with friends. These games all do that, but each tests a different skill.

What to look for

• One shared puzzle a day. Comparing scores only means something when everyone played the same thing.
• A few minutes, not an hour. The best daily games end before you want them to.
• Something you can get better at. Shapes, neighbours, clues or landscapes: pick the skill you want to build.
• An answer that teaches you something. MapTap’s history notes are part of its appeal; look for games that explain the answer rather than just mark it.

1. Atlas Daily: work the place out first

Atlas Daily is the closest in feel, because it also uses a borderless, unlabelled 3D globe and a 1,000-point day. The difference is the question. MapTap tells you the place and asks where it is. Atlas Daily doesn’t tell you: each of the five rounds starts with a hard clue about history, landscape or everyday life, and you can ask for up to four more, each easier than the last. Once you have worked out the answer, you find it on the globe.

Every extra clue lowers the points available, so you are always weighing how sure you are against how much you could score. On a country round, a pin anywhere inside the country earns the points for your clue; a near miss still earns some credit, shrinking with distance from the border. Most rounds are countries, with an occasional famous site such as Machu Picchu.

It is free, runs in any modern browser on a phone or computer, and needs no account: your streak and stats stay in your browser. There is no app and no leaderboard. You can send a friend a link to the same puzzle to beat your score, replay any of the last 30 days, and read every finished day’s clues and answers on the past puzzles page.

Coming from MapTap, a few things help. The first clue is meant to be obscure, so don’t be discouraged by it. Asking for another clue costs only an eighth of the round’s points each time, which is usually cheaper than a wrong guess. On a country round you don’t need the capital: anywhere inside the border scores the same. And without borders on the globe, coastlines, rivers, deserts and mountain ranges are your landmarks.

Play today’s Atlas Daily

2. GeoGuessr daily challenge: where is this photo?

GeoGuessr drops you into Google Street View and you pin your guess on a map. Its daily challenge is five locations, refreshed each day, and it says you can play for free, though it asks you to sign up. Beyond that, GeoGuessr has paid Pro and Elite plans. If you like MapTap’s distance scoring but want to deduce the place from road signs, plants and architecture, this is the obvious next step.

3. Worldle: name the country from its shape

Worldle shows the outline of a country or territory and gives you six guesses. Each wrong guess tells you the distance, the direction and how close you are as a percentage, and bonus rounds follow. The daily game is free with adverts. It rewards knowing shapes rather than positions, which makes it a good partner to a globe game.

4. Globle: hot and cold on a globe

Globle hides a mystery country. Every guess appears on a 3D globe in a colour that gets hotter the closer you are, measured between land borders. It is free with an option to remove adverts. It feels closest to MapTap in how much time you spend looking at the globe, but you are narrowing down rather than pinning.

5. Travle: get from one country to another

Travle gives you a start country and an end country, and you name the countries in between, in as few guesses as you can. Bridges and tunnels count; exclaves don’t. It is excellent practice for knowing neighbours, which is exactly what helps on a borderless globe.

6. Seterra: practise the map itself

Seterra is not a daily game but a library of more than 400 map quizzes: click the named country, capital or river on a map. It dates back to 1997 and is now owned by GeoGuessr. If MapTap shows you a gap, say Central Asia or the Caribbean, ten minutes of Seterra will fill it.

7. TimeGuessr, Flagle and Tradle

TimeGuessr shows five photos a day and asks for the year as well as the place. Flagle reveals a flag tile by tile, and Tradle asks you to name a country from a chart of its exports. All three are quick daily puzzles.

Atlas Daily and MapTap side by side

Which should you play?

If you want the purest test of where places are, MapTap and Seterra do that best. If you enjoy the moment a clue clicks and you suddenly know the answer, Atlas Daily is built around it. For shapes try Worldle, for neighbours Travle, and for reading a landscape GeoGuessr. They take about five minutes each, so there is no need to choose just one. A good pairing is one game that names the place, like MapTap, and one that makes you work it out, like Atlas Daily: between them you practise both knowing where places are and recognising them from what you know about them.

For a wider round-up, see daily geography games. To get a feel for Atlas Daily’s clues before you play, try the geography quiz.

Atlas Daily is not affiliated with any of these games. Facts about them were checked on their own sites and the linked articles on 12 October 2026; games change, so check each site for the latest.