HeadcountHeadcount Daily Population Game - Play Unlimited
Headcount is a geography game about where people live. Draw a loop on the population map, reveal your count, and see how close you get across five rounds.
How to play Headcount
- 01
Read your population target
Each round gives you a population to find. Look for a region anywhere on the map that might contain that many people, from a busy coast to a wide rural area.
- 02
Explore the map and draw
Switch to Move to explore, then use Draw to trace a loop. Zoom with the buttons, mouse wheel, or a pinch, and drag inside your finished region to reposition it.
- 03
Lock in your region
Choose Lock in region when your outline feels right. The game reveals its estimated population, your percentage over or under the target, and your round score.
- 04
Play five, then play again
Finish five rounds for a score out of 500. Share your challenge with a friend or start another game immediately, with a fresh set of population targets to find.
See the world through its population.
Warm dots reveal where people live. Brighter areas contain more residents, while dimmer regions are less populated. Use that pattern to guide your first loop.
A small region around a busy city can hold more people than a vast stretch of countryside. Borders do not limit your drawing, so follow your own sense of place.
The whole world. As many tries as you like.
Play Headcount unlimited without a daily reset, subscription, or sign-up. Each new game brings five population targets, and you can keep exploring at your pace.
A shared challenge gives every player the same five targets. Your drawings are your own, so friends can take entirely different paths to a similar final score.
Closer counts earn more points.
Each round gives up to 100 points by comparing your count to the target. Five rounds add up to 500 points, with overestimates and underestimates both counted.
The score compares ratios: half the target earns the same points as twice the target. A tenfold difference scores zero, so aim for proportion rather than area.
Headcount questions, answered.
What is Headcount?
Headcount is a population estimation game. Find a target population by drawing a region on a world map, then reveal its count and score points for accuracy.
How do I play Headcount unlimited?
Complete five rounds and select Play another game for a fresh challenge. There is no daily cap, waiting period, or paid mode on this version of Play Unlimited.
Can I draw anywhere in the world?
Yes. Regions can cover cities, countryside, or several countries together. You do not need to follow borders, and only population cells inside your loop count.
What do the glowing dots mean?
The map displays estimated residential population. Brighter cells contain more people; the dots are a visual guide, not individual people or live location data.
Can I see the count while drawing?
Your population estimate stays hidden until you lock in the region. You can redraw or move your loop beforehand, but submitting ends your attempt for the round.
How do I move my region?
Once you draw a loop, drag from inside it to reposition the shape. Drag outside it in Draw mode to start again, or use Clear drawing to remove your outline.
How do I zoom or move the map?
Use Move to drag the map, and the plus and minus buttons to zoom. A mouse wheel or two-finger pinch also works, while the globe button shows the whole world.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. Draw with one finger and pinch with two to zoom. Use Move when exploring the map, then return to Draw to trace your region before revealing the count.
Is there an alternative to drawing?
Choose Circle to place a ready-made region. Move it with a drag or the arrow keys with the map focused, then adjust its size with the slider or plus and minus.
How is my Headcount score calculated?
Scoring uses the ratio between your count and the target. An exact match earns 100 points; half or double earns about 69.9, and a tenfold difference earns zero.
Where does the population data come from?
Counts use the European Commission’s GHS-POP R2023A dataset for 2025. We sum its source cells into a smaller regional grid so the map can run in your browser.
Are the population counts exact?
The counts are modeled estimates, not a live census. Our regional grid uses cells about 14 km across at the equator, so small outlines have limited precision.
Does the game save my progress?
Your rounds, current challenge, and best total are saved in this browser when storage is available. Clearing site data removes your locally saved records.
Can I challenge a friend?
Use Share challenge to copy a link to your five targets. After round five, Share my result adds your scores so friends can find their own way around the map.
Is this the same as FlightQ’s Headcount?
This is an independent version inspired by FlightQ’s Headcount. It has its own interface and regional population grid, with unlimited games available for free.
A different way to see our world.
Headcount turns population patterns into a small geography challenge. Explore somewhere familiar, take a chance on a new region, and learn a little with every loop.
Population: GHS-POP R2023A, 2025 epoch, European Commission, Joint Research Centre. Schiavina, Freire, Carioli and MacManus (2023). © European Union, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
We sum 30-arc-second source cells into a 0.125-degree regional grid and round each total to a whole person. A cell counts when its centre falls inside your outline.
Counts describe modeled residential population, not current locations. Country names, city labels, and map outlines use public-domain data from Natural Earth.
Detailed map tiles sharpen the view as you zoom. Counts still use the regional grid, so the extra visual detail does not turn a small loop into a street-level census.
This independent game is inspired by FlightQ’s Headcount. We are not affiliated with FlightQ, and scores across the two versions may differ.