Looking for a TimeGuessr alternative?
TimeGuessr set the version of this genre most people recognise. You get a real archival photograph, you pin the place on a map, and you set the year with a slider. It is a solid game and it has been running a daily for years. Other games in the same space use different prompts and different scoring, and those differences change what you are actually practising.
This page compares the free daily history map games as they stand, HistoPin included. If you prefer to read a clue and work out a place, HistoPin is the one built around that.
Play today's HistoPin puzzle →The difference that usually decides it
Most games in this genre start with a photograph. A strong archival image can carry a lot. It also caps the subject matter. Photography starts in the 19th century. A photo round cannot use the founding of Carthage, the Battle of Hastings, or the eruption that buried Pompeii, because no photograph of those events exists.
HistoPin uses written clues, so the pool can cover recorded history as a whole. Each of the 3,000 events was written by hand as a location riddle. The text says what happened and leaves the place out. Finding that place is the round. The clues did not come from a scraped database dump. They were not written by a model.
How the free daily history map games compare
| Game | What you see | What you guess | Scoring | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HistoPin | A written clue about a historical event | Where it happened | Distance, with extras for speed, precision, the correct modern-day country, and streak | Free, no paywall |
| TimeGuessr | A real archival photograph | Place and year | Distance and how close the year is | Free |
| EraPin | An archival photograph with a cryptic clue | Place and year | Exponential distance decay plus year accuracy | Free to play, with a paid tier for teachers |
| MapTap | Locations tied to this day in history | Where they are on a 3D globe | Distance against a countdown timer | Free with in-app purchases |
The details above match each game as published at the time of writing. These products change. If something here is stale, write to admin@histopin.com and it will be corrected.
What HistoPin does differently
Scoring rewards more than proximity
A lot of games in this genre treat closer as better and leave it there. HistoPin's base score falls exponentially with distance, so a decent guess 600 km out still returns points. On top of that you can pick up extra for answering quickly, landing within 25 km, pinning inside the event's modern-day country, and keeping a run of good rounds going. Players who miss by a similar distance can still end the daily with different totals. That is why comparing a score with a friend has some bite.
The full event pool is not behind a paywall
Some games in this space put older puzzles behind a subscription. HistoPin's Practice Mode is free and has no round cap. You can filter the 3,000-event pool by continent, era and category. The categories are Politics, Culture, Battles, Exploration, Disasters, Sports, Science and Inventions. Extra rounds do not use up the daily.
No account required
The daily plays as soon as the page loads. Signing in keeps streak and leaderboard place if you switch devices. Skip the account and you still get the full daily.
Try one round
Five events a day, taken from what happened on today's date. Read the clue. Drop the pin. Check the distance.
Frequently asked
Is there a free alternative to TimeGuessr?
Yes. HistoPin has no ads and no paywall. The format is the trade: written clues, not photographs.
Which is harder?
The two formats ask for different things. A photograph gives you buildings, clothes and vehicles to read. A written riddle asks you to reason from the event. Players who already know a lot of history often prefer the clue format. Players who read images well often prefer photos.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. HistoPin runs in the browser on phones and computers. You can add it to a home screen as a progressive web app. There is no store download.
Play today's HistoPin puzzle →