Crowd
Draw one loop around exactly the number of people shown. Bright means crowded.
Lasso the right number of people.
A population target appears, say 20 million people. Draw one loop on the world map around the area you think holds exactly that many people, then lock it in. Bright means crowded. Each round scores up to 100: twice or half the target is worth about 70, ten times off is worth 0.
How to play Crowd
Each round shows a population target, from a city (500,000 people) to a continent (a billion). The map shows where the world's 8.2 billion people actually live: the brighter a spot, the denser the population. Trace a single loop around the area you think holds exactly that many people, then lock it in.
The count stays hidden until you commit, so reading the map is the whole skill. Before locking in, you can zoom, move your loop by dragging its inside, or draw a new one to replace it.
Scoring
A round is worth 100 × (1 − |log10(people inside ÷ target)|), and never less than zero. Only the ratio matters: enclosing twice the target costs as much as enclosing half of it (about 70 points), and you have to be ten times off to score zero. Five rounds make a daily total out of 500.
Tips
- Learn a few anchors: greater Tokyo holds about 37 million people, the Nile delta and Cairo over 60 million, the island of Java around 150 million.
- Brightness beats size. A tight loop around a glowing delta holds more people than a huge loop across a desert.
- Zoom in before drawing small targets: a loop that looks big on screen is easier to place precisely.
FAQ
Where does the population data come from?
From GHS-POP R2023A, 2025 epoch, published by the European Commission Joint Research Centre under the CC BY 4.0 license. It estimates the population of every square kilometre of land from census and satellite data. Magnitudle uses it on a grid of about 2 km.
How is the number of people inside my loop computed?
Your browser adds up every grid cell inside the loop. Cells crossed by the edge count in proportion to the part of the cell inside the loop. Large loops use a 0.1 degree grid, which gives the same totals.
Does everyone get the same targets?
Yes. The five daily targets depend only on the date, and the daily challenge counts once for the leaderboard. After that, Unlimited deals a new random target every round.