How to play Guess the Chain
- The map shows every US location of one mystery chain: a restaurant, store, gas station, bank or gym.
- Type a chain name. Close spellings are fine: the best match is used. You get 6 guesses.
- After each wrong guess you see:
- Category: ✓ same kind of business, ≈ similar, ✗ different.
- Stores: ↑ the mystery chain has more locations than your guess, ↓ fewer.
- Overlap: how much the two maps cover the same places. Press Compare to see your guess's dots in blue.
- Each wrong guess also unlocks a hint: category, number of locations, year founded, headquarters state, first letter.
- A new map comes out every day at midnight, your local time. Share your result without spoiling the answer.
Tips
- Look at the gaps. A chain missing from the whole West Coast is a very different guess from one missing from New England.
- Count the dots. Tens of thousands of dots mean a giant like Subway or Dollar General. A few dozen means a regional favorite.
- Use your first guess well. A big national chain in the right category tells you a lot through the overlap score and the ↑ ↓ arrows.
- Compare maps. Press Compare on a guess to put its dots (blue) on top of the mystery map.
Questions
Where does the data come from?
From All the Places, an open project that collects locations from chains' own store locators and releases them into the public domain. A few locations can be missing or out of date.
When does the map change?
At midnight in your own time zone, like other daily puzzle games.
Can I play past maps?
Yes. Every earlier map is in the archive, and practice mode gives you random maps without limit.
Is my streak saved?
Your results are saved in your browser on this device. Clearing your browser data resets them.