How scoring works in SoundGuessr

Every SoundGuessr round is worth up to 100 points, and a game has five rounds, so 500 is the most you can score. In map rounds the points depend only on the distance between your pin and the place where the sound was recorded. In Pick from 4 you get 100 points or none. In Name the sound you get more points the less of the clip you needed.

How are map rounds scored?

The game measures the distance along the Earth's surface from your pin to the recording's position. You get 100 × e^{−distance / 1,500 km} points, rounded to a whole number. The score drops fast over the first few hundred kilometres and slowly after that:

The same rule applies in On the map and in the daily five. There is no time limit, and how long you take doesn't change your score. You can play the recording as often as you like before you lock in your pin.

When does a guess count as right?

A pin within 500 km of the real place counts as right, which is always 72 points or more. After each round the game says Right, Close or Missed. Close means you were more than 500 km away but still scored at least 40 points, which is up to about 1,390 km. Anything further is Missed.

How is Pick from 4 scored?

Instead of a map you get four place names. The right one is worth 100 points and the others are worth 0. The three wrong options are usually the places of other recordings in the game.

How is Name the sound scored?

Here you name what you hear: a language, a bird, an instrument, an animal, or a vehicle or machine. You start with the first second of the clip. Each wrong guess, or a skip, lets you hear a longer part: 2, 4, 8 and then 16 seconds. A right answer is worth:

A wrong guess at 16 seconds, or giving up, ends the round with 0 points. You can't pick the same wrong answer twice. Your browser only receives the part of the clip you have reached, so there is no way to play ahead. Once the round is over you can listen to up to 30 seconds of it.

The Other sounds category works the same way, except that the answer is the description the uploader gave, and you choose from up to four descriptions instead of searching a list.

How does the daily five work?

The daily five is five map rounds with the same five sounds for everyone. A new set starts every day at midnight UTC. They are numbered: No. 1 was on 1 October 2026. You get one try a day and the most you can score is 500. If you leave halfway, your rounds are kept and you can carry on later the same day.

When the game picks a day's sounds, it leaves out sounds from the previous 30 daily fives where it can, and it tries to take the five from five different places.

How do streaks work?

Your streak is the number of days in a row on which you finished the daily five, all five rounds. If you played yesterday and haven't played yet today, the streak still stands. It goes back to zero after a full UTC day without a finished five. The game also keeps your best streak.

What does the shared result show?

After the daily five you can share your result without giving away any places: the number of the day, one square per round, your score and your streak. A green square is 80 points or more (within about 340 km), yellow is 40 to 79, and black is under 40. A result looks like this:

SoundGuessr daily #5 🟩🟨🟩⬛🟨 302/500 · 3-day streak soundguessr.com

Where are scores ranked?

Only the daily five is ranked. Under Scores there are two boards: today, and this week (Monday to Sunday, UTC), which adds up your finished daily fives. Today's board stays hidden until you have finished today's five. Equal scores share a place, and whoever finished first is listed first. Players with a private profile aren't listed by name but still count. Games of On the map, Pick from 4 and Name the sound aren't ranked.

New to the game? What is SoundGuessr? covers the modes. If you want to add your own recordings, read how to record and upload a sound.