Guess the year games
A guess-the-year game shows you a clue, usually a photo or a historical event, and asks for the year. The closer you land, the more you score. The photo versions include Which Year, Chronophoto, Photoguesser and our own Decade, and the event versions include Yeardle and What Year Was It?.
We make Decade. It appears below next to the other games, and we say where another one may suit you better.
How we chose We looked at the games that show up for “guess the year”, “which year”, “history guessing game” and “photo guessing game” searches, then read each game's own site, and its App Store listing where it has one, in October 2026. We list only what those sources say. This is a guide to how the games work, not a ranking.
PHOTO GAMES
PHOTO · YEAR ONLY
Which Year, Chronophoto and Photoguesser
Which Year gives you a timeline slider from 1850 to 2025, scores closer guesses higher, and offers a hint that reveals one digit of the year. Chronophoto has Unlimited, Daily and Party modes on the web, with an adjustable range of photo years. Photoguesser has a daily challenge and lets you create or join games.
PHOTO · YEAR AND PLACE
TimeGuessr and WhenTaken
These add a map: you pin where the photo was taken and choose the year. TimeGuessr scores closer guesses higher and has a daily mode. WhenTaken has a daily game, an archive and a year slider from 1860 to 2026. Our games like TimeGuessr guide compares them.
PHOTO · YEAR ONLY · WE MAKE THIS ONE
Decade
We make Decade. You get five archive photos a day, the same set for everyone, with one guess per photo. You drag a slider from 1850 to the current year or type four digits. Each photo scores up to 1,000 points, so a set tops out at 5,000, and points drop as your guess moves away from the true year. At 60 years off, a photo scores zero. After each guess, you see the actual year, your points, a caption and historical context. Photos come from public archives, and the Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons lead the collection. It has no location guessing.
The share card shows your score and a colour swatch per photo, marked too early, too late or exact, never the year itself. Free covers the daily set, one extra practice set a day and streak tracking. To see how a round feels, try one round in your browser, or get Decade on the App Store.
EVENT AND TRIVIA GAMES
EVENTS · WORDLE STYLE
Yeardle
Yeardle gives you three events from a single year and eight tries to name it. After each guess, the box changes colour to show how close you are, and you decide whether to go higher or lower. A new puzzle appears every day at midnight Central Time, and you can enter BCE years with a minus sign. It is a good pick if you like Wordle's feedback loop.
EVENTS · SHORT ROUNDS
Guess the Year by davjhan and What Year Was It?
Guess the Year is a small web game: a famous event appears, you guess the year between 1900 and 2021, and a game takes one to two minutes. What Year Was It? is an iPhone app that uses multiple-choice questions across history, entertainment and sports. Its listing says there are no ads and no tracking, as of October 2026.
HOW SCORING USUALLY WORKS
Among the games here, the common pattern is a score that rises as your guess gets closer. TimeGuessr, Which Year and Chronophoto all describe it that way. Yeardle replaces points with tries and colour hints. What Year Was It? uses multiple choice, so there is no distance at all. Decade uses points that fall with distance, up to 1,000 per photo and zero at 60 years off.
The practical lesson is the same in each: a guess that is a few years off is usually still worth something, so it is better to commit to a reasoned range than to freeze up.
TIPS FOR DATING PHOTOS
These are general habits, not rules. Any single clue can mislead, so look for several that agree.
- Check the photo itself. Colour and black-and-white tell you less than you'd think, because black-and-white film stayed in use long after colour arrived. Grain, blur and tone can hint at the camera and film, but they cannot pin a year.
- Read the cars. Body shapes, headlights and the mix of vehicles on a street can narrow a range. Number plates and road markings sometimes help too.
- Look at clothing and hair. Hemlines, hats, collars and haircuts shift over decades, though people wear older styles too.
- Find text and technology. Signs, typefaces, shop fronts, phones, screens and posters can set an earliest possible year. Something that appears in the photo cannot predate its invention, though something missing proves little.
- Use the lower bound. Work out the earliest plausible year from the newest object you can see, then guess a little after it.
- Read the reveal. In a game that shows captions and context after each guess, that is where you learn what to look for next time.
Questions people ask
What is a guess the year game?
A game that shows a photo, event or other clue and asks for the year. Most score you by how close you get, and some also ask for a location.
Is there a daily guess the year game?
Yes. Which Year, Chronophoto, TimeGuessr, WhenTaken, Photoguesser, Yeardle and Decade all list a daily mode on their own sites or App Store listings.
Which year game works on iPhone?
TimeGuessr, Decade and What Year Was It? have App Store listings, and an iPhone app named Chronophoto is listed too. Which Year and Photoguesser run in the browser.
Is there a history guessing game that doesn't need a map?
Yes. Decade, Chronophoto, Which Year and Yeardle ask only for the year.
How do I get better at guessing the year of a photo?
Look at several clues together: cars, clothing, signs, technology and the quality of the photo. Use the newest object you can see to set a lower bound, then guess just after it.