GeoGuessr Coming to Steam After 12 Years as Browser Game

GeoGuessr, the popular geography guessing game, is finally making its way to Steam in April 2025 after living as a browser-based experience for over a decade. Though it's been around since 2013, the game isn't showing its age - it'll hit Steam in Early Access with a fresh focus on competitive play.

If you haven't tried it yet, here's the deal: GeoGuessr drops you into a random Google Street View location, and you've got to figure out where in the world you are. It's like being a digital detective - scanning road signs, buildings, landscapes, and even the cars passing by for clues about your location. The closer your guess on the world map, the more points you score.

According to the Steam listing, GeoGuessr will remain in Early Access "for at least six months" while developers add "new game modes, maps, and competitive features."

At launch, players can enjoy ranked Solo Duels and unranked Team Duels, including cross-play support with the browser version.

This Steam debut comes at a pretty interesting moment for GeoGuessr. What started as a casual geography game has somehow grown into a legitimate esports contender in recent years. The game really took off during the pandemic when we were all stuck at home, dreaming of travel - GeoGuessr became the next best thing to actually hopping on a plane.

The game owes a lot to content creators who helped it go mainstream. Big-name streamers like Ludwig brought GeoGuessr to their massive audiences, while geography wizards (pun intended) like Tom "GeoWizard" Davies and Trevor "Rainbolt" Rainbolt showed just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Rainbolt, now practically a geography celebrity, got so into it that he'd practice up to 12 hours a day! He became known for wild challenges like identifying locations from blurry images or after seeing them for just a split second.

The competitive scene has grown significantly since then. In 2023, GeoGuessr officially entered the esports world with the inaugural GeoGuessr World Cup in Stockholm, Sweden. The event featured 24 top players from 21 countries competing for a $50,000 prize pool, with Dutch player Consus defeating France's Blinky in the finals.

The 2024 World Cup, also held in Stockholm, marked a major milestone for the game. The event saw record-breaking viewership with 297,896 peak viewers and 1.6 million hours watched over 26 hours. The base prize pool of $50,000 grew to $57,555 through crowdfunding via player bundle sales and Twitch subscriptions.

Looking ahead, 2025 appears to be a defining year for GeoGuessr esports. The World Championship, rebranded and scheduled for August 29-30 in Copenhagen, Denmark, will cap what's expected to be a busy competitive season.

So when exactly is it coming to Steam, and how much will it cost? That's still up in the air. The browser version used to be completely free but now caps you at three guesses per day unless you subscribe (starting at $2.49 monthly). Mobile players need the $2.99 Pro Unlimited plan to play on iOS and Android.

Here's where things get a bit tricky - the Steam version will need a brand new account that won't connect with existing GeoGuessr profiles. This suggests they might be cooking up a different pricing model altogether. Longtime players might find this a bit annoying, but it could be a smart move to welcome Steam's massive user base to the GeoGuessr world.

GeoGuessr offers various modes to suit different playstyles. The classic single-player mode gives players five locations to guess, with optional settings like time limits or restrictions on panning and zooming for added difficulty. Multiplayer modes include Battle Royale—where players compete to avoid elimination by guessing fastest—and Duels, which will be a key focus of the Steam release.

The game also features custom maps created by the community, ranging from specific countries to themed challenges like famous landmarks or even fictional universes adapted to real-world locations.

With this jump to Steam, GeoGuessr is set to introduce a whole new crowd to the joy of virtual globe-trotting while building on its surprising success as an esport. Not bad for a geography game that started as a simple web experiment back in 2013!