Higher or Lower

How to play

Pick a category. The first card shows its number and the second one hides it. Tap Higher if you think the hidden number is bigger, Lower if you think it is smaller, or use the up and down arrow keys. Get it right and the hidden card becomes the one to beat. Get it wrong and the run ends.

Your best streak in each category is saved on this device. Share a run to dare someone to beat it: the link opens the same category.

Questions people ask

How do I play Higher or Lower?

You see two cards. The first shows its number; the second hides it. Call whether the hidden number is higher or lower, and if you are right the second card moves across and a new one comes in. One wrong call ends the run.

Does it get harder?

Yes. The first few pairs are far apart. From three in a row the numbers get closer, closer again from six, and from ten they sit within about a factor of two of each other, which is where most runs end.

What is the Mixed category?

People, countries, films, footballers, Pokémon and anime characters, all compared by how many times a month their English Wikipedia article is read, averaged over the last twelve months. It is the closest free measure of how much the world looks something up.

Why is Jakarta bigger than Tokyo?

City populations here come from the UN's World Urbanization Prospects 2025, which measures every city the same way: the whole continuous built-up area, not the official city limits. On that measure Jakarta is the largest city in the world at 41.9 million, then Dhaka at 36.6 million, then Tokyo at 33.4 million.

Why does Paris have 9.4 million people and not 2 million?

The City of Paris inside its official limits has about 2.1 million people, but the city people mean when they say Paris runs well past those limits. The UN counts the whole built-up area, which is 9.4 million. Every city in the game is counted the same way, so the comparisons are fair even where a number surprises you.

Where do the numbers come from?

Country population is the World Bank's latest year. Country size is total area, including lakes and rivers, from Wikidata. City population is the UN's World Urbanization Prospects 2025. Box office is worldwide gross in US dollars from Wikidata. Pokémon stats are base stat totals from PokéAPI. Wikipedia views come from the Wikimedia pageviews service.

Can there be a tie?

No. Two cards with the same number are never put against each other.