A little curiosity. A whole world.
The world is waiting.
Explore real streets. Follow the clues. Drop your pin.
Five free rounds, solo or with your favourite people.
Playing now — Checking current players
One world. Better together.Your next five places await
Get lost.
Find something good.
A road sign. A mountain range. A tiny detail that suddenly clicks. Look around, follow your instincts, and see how close you can get.
- 01 Explore the street
- 02 Place your pin
- 03 See how close
Party rooms
Good friends.
Wild guesses.
Share a code, bring up to 20 players, and turn five places into a friendly rivalry. Same streets. Same clock. Very different guesses.
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20
Players in a room
A room takes up to 20 players. Two is enough to begin, either when the host starts it or when the automatic lobby countdown ends.
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5
Shared locations
Identical areas in an identical order for everybody in the room.
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90
Seconds a round
Ninety seconds per place to look, walk, decide and lock your pin, once your photograph and map are ready.
Start a room Guests join with a nickname and a six-character code. No login, no install.
Inside a round
Explore. Place your pin. See how close.
A closer look at the real game. These captures show our free Panoramax fallback; try the live preview above for the current experience.
All three stills show the current solo game using the free imagery provider. Source photograph, creator and licence: screenshot credits.
Ways to play
A quick escape. A daily ritual. A room full of rivals.
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Solo
Five rounds, your own pace
A fresh random game every time you open it, with a timer of 30, 60, 90 or 180 seconds a round — or no clock at all. Your XP, levels, badges and recent games are kept in this browser as a solo passport.
Play solo -
Daily
One challenge, one attempt
The same five-round plan for everyone on a given UTC day, played in Moving mode with the timer fixed at 90 seconds a round. It never opens by itself: find it deliberately as Daily challenge in the Solo menu, and it waits in this browser until you choose it.
Open the Solo menu -
Friends
A guest room in two clicks
Create a room, share the code, and race up to 20 players across the same five places. Everyone joins as a guest with a nickname — nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.
Play with friends
- 131 starting areas
- 674 fallback panoramas
- 27 countries
- 5 continents
Explore with Google Street View and Google Maps. When the monthly app allowance is used, play continues with Panoramax photographs and OpenFreeMap. New Daily challenges follow this policy from 3 October 2026 (UTC); earlier challenges and saved games keep their original imagery. Your solo progress stays in this browser.
Questions
The things people ask first
Is PinPonder free, and do I need an account?
Both the solo game and the guest rooms are free to play, and neither needs an account, an email address or a password. A room is joined with a nickname and the code your host shares. This build shows no advertising and runs no analytics.
How does a party room work?
One player creates a room and passes on the six-character code or the invite link. Up to 20 players can be in the room while the lobby is open. When the second player arrives, a full three-minute countdown begins, and the host can start sooner once two players are in the room; both paths give everyone the same ten-second countdown, and joining closes while it runs. Everyone then gets the same five places in the same order, with 90 seconds a round once their photograph and map are ready.
A round is revealed when everybody has guessed or the 90 seconds run out, whichever comes first. After the reveal the scores stay on screen for 10 seconds before the next round. When all five rounds are done, the winner is celebrated and the full leaderboard follows. From there, Play again together moves everyone still in the room into a fresh lobby automatically, with the same names and the scores reset.
Where is my progress stored?
Solo progress — your passport, badges, settings and saved games — is stored in this browser for this site only. It is not uploaded and does not follow you to another device or browser, so there is no cross-device solo sync.
A party room is different: while you are in one, your nickname, your room membership, your pins and your scores are held on this project’s server so the room can stay in step. Privacy and storage sets out exactly what is kept and for how long.
Are the photographs real?
Yes. Google rounds use real Google Street View imagery with Google's attribution. Once the monthly app allowance is used, PinPonder uses real Panoramax camera photographs, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 and credited through a Photo credits control that warns it can reveal the location.
The live preview opens the real game after you click. Our homepage film travels from a rotating 3D Earth to animated views of real Panoramax photographs. The Earth sequence is promotional; playable locations always use real street imagery. The still images show real gameplay with our free Panoramax fallback.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Solo play and party rooms both work on small screens in portrait or landscape, and nothing needs a mouse hover. Street imagery and detailed maps can use a fair amount of data, so Wi-Fi is helpful for longer sessions.
Can I walk around before I guess?
Yes. Google rounds use Street View's directional arrows to move along the road. Free fallback rounds have arrows between connected photographs. Drag to look around and zoom in for details. Return to start goes back to the round’s starting photograph, and your guess is always measured from that starting point — in a party room too, where the round’s 90 seconds keep running while you explore.
Five places are waiting
Take them on alone, or bring the whole group.