Every change to the game, newest first. Boards that were already played never change: new or fixed categories only appear on boards made after the update.
Lock-out warning: if a correct answer would use up the last country another empty square needs, the game now says so and lets you choose “Place it anyway” or “Choose another” (no guess is spent when you step back). It works on solo boards of every kind and in 1v1 matches without stealing, for your own squares.
Light mode is softer: a light grey-green background and slightly toned-down panels and squares instead of near-white.
Light and dark mode switch: the sun/moon button next to the sound button flips between the two. Until you tap it the game follows your device; after that it remembers your choice.
Tidier on phones: the grid now starts right under the size picker and fits on the first screen. Today’s board, new random board, weak spots, build a board, the mini-games and the board-code box are behind one “More boards & games” button. Country of the day and the daily quests moved below the grid.
“Guess the country” moved from the top tabs into the Mini-games group on the Play page, next to Higher or lower and Border walk. The “Turn off the mini-games” switch in the admin page now covers it too.
Anonymous visit statistics: how many people visit, where they come from, which grid sizes get played and finished, how 1v1 matches are created and accepted, and how many sign up. No cookies, no personal data; browsers with “Do Not Track” are left out. A note about this is in the page footer.
The site also uses GoatCounter, a privacy-friendly traffic counter without cookies, for pages, countries and screen sizes.
The game’s name is now “4x4 Grid” everywhere: page title, installed app name, emails, shared results and images.
The game now has its own address: 4x4grid.com. Link previews, emails and the update log link use it, and the old xirvik.ch/geogrid address forwards there. Accounts work on the new address after signing in once.
The small numbers around the logo size now show the other two grid sizes: 3×3 shows 4 and 5, 4×4 shows 3 and 5, 5×5 shows 3 and 4.
The game always opens on the standard 4×4 grid. Choosing 3×3 or 5×5 now only lasts for that visit.
Accounts now use a password instead of a recovery code. When you make an account you can add an email address; confirm it with the link we send, and you can reset a forgotten password from “Forgot password?” on the sign-in screen. You can also sign in with your confirmed email instead of your name.
Older accounts keep working: enter the recovery code in the password box. In your account, “Sign-in and security” lets you set a password (the code then stops working) and add an email. Changing the password signs your other devices out.
Deleting your account now asks for your password, and it also removes your email address.
The account screen no longer wipes what you are typing when a background sync finishes.
Link previews: pasting the game’s link into WhatsApp, Reddit, Discord or similar now shows a card with the logo, a sample grid and a one-line pitch.
A short tagline under the logo and a “How to play” button. First-time visitors see a three-step welcome once.
1v1: after you create a match, the phone’s share sheet opens with the invite link, and the waiting screen has a “Share invite” button. Your friend taps the link and lands straight on the join screen.
The name in the header is now just “Grid”, with a small, slightly tilted tic-tac-toe grid symbol next to it. The logo text now uses a Helvetica-style typeface. The full name stays in the page title and the app name.
The game is now called 4x4 Grid. The board size you are playing now sits in front of the name, with a small 3 below on the left and a small 5 above on the right for the smallest and largest grids.
In 1v1, naming a country for the first time now shows the “NEW STAMP” pop-up, and “Country of the day” updates during a match. The stamp only appears for countries that really are new to your passport, including ones from other devices.
1v1: a new board option “Weak spots of both”. When your opponent joins, the game picks a board built around countries neither of you has named yet, and fair to both. It works best when both players play with accounts, because it reads your saved games by name. Rematches keep the option.
11 new categories: Capital on the coast (within about 50 km of the sea) and Capital over 500 km from the sea; Capital is the largest city (the opposite of the existing “isn’t the largest”); Land on the opposite side of the Earth; Entirely in the Southern Hemisphere; Crossed by the prime meridian; Ends in ‑land; Joined the UN in 1991 or later; Never a European colony (outside Europe); Smaller than Switzerland; Larger than France.
Board version 18 · from board 22 (20 Oct) Boards made earlier keep their categories.
“Country of the day” now updates the moment you name it in a grid: “not in your passport yet” switches to “in your passport” with a small pop. It also checks your saved games from the server after a reload, so countries named on other devices count too.
Visual polish: all cards, tiles and sheets share one radius, border and soft shadow (tuned for dark mode too); buttons, tabs and toggles use the same easing and give press feedback; squares land with a softer pop and flags fade in; a wrong guess shakes the window more gently. Drop-downs now follow the dark theme, and with “reduce motion” on, all animations are switched off. On phones the passport number sits under the rank instead of over the flag.
Admin page: two switches to turn off German and Polish, and to turn off the mini-games (Higher or lower, Border walk). Needs the new config.php next to index.html.
Polish pass: the Play toolbar is grouped into “Boards” and “Mini-games”; Profile, Stats and the match screen show loading placeholders instead of plain text; on phones the header tabs scroll sideways instead of widening the page; long German and Polish labels wrap inside tiles and cards; and small tap targets (table headers, header links, toggles) are bigger.
Even small emblem details now count as flag colours: Fiji (+ yellow, green), Guatemala (+ yellow), Serbia (+ yellow), Bolivia (+ blue), Nicaragua (+ green), Paraguay (+ yellow) and El Salvador (+ yellow). The Database table and country cards now also show the emblem colours.
Board version 17 · from board 22 (20 Oct) Boards made earlier keep the old lists.
Flag colours of countries with a large coat of arms or emblem now count the emblem’s main colours too: Haiti (+ green palm), Dominican Republic (+ green), Portugal (+ white and blue shield), San Marino (+ green wreath and yellow crown), El Salvador (+ green wreath) and Paraguay (+ green wreath). All colour categories (“Flag with …”, “without red/white”, “2 / exactly 3 / 4+ colours”, “red, yellow and green”, “blue and yellow”) use the new lists.
Board version 16 · from board 22 (20 Oct) Boards made earlier keep the old lists.
Profile layout: the record tiles with long text (most named country, rarest find, favourite and nemesis category) now use a smaller font and span two columns, so nothing overflows.
Ecuador’s flag colours now include green and white (its large coat of arms has sky blue, green, grey, silver and gold, which count as blue, green and yellow here). It now counts for “Flag with green”, “Flag with white”, “Flag with 4+ colours” and “Flag with red, yellow and green”, and no longer for “exactly 3 colours” or “Flag without white”. The country card and Database show the new colours.
Board versions 14 and 15 · from board 22 (20 Oct) Boards made earlier keep the old lists.
Streak freeze: if you miss a day and had a daily streak of 3 or more, the Play screen offers to spend one 💡 hint token to keep it. The frozen day bridges the gap (and counts as a day in the streak). Frozen days are saved on this device.
Quest streak: the quests card counts how many days in a row you finished all three, with two new trophies: Quest week (7 days) and Quest master (30 days).
Border walk: a new game (button on the Play screen). You get a start and an end country and have to connect them by naming a neighbour of the last country each time. The game knows the shortest route; match it for a “Shortest route!”. You can undo a step or have the route shown. A world map highlights the start, your route and the goal as you go, and the walk ends by itself as soon as the last country borders the goal.
Friends’ activity in your Profile: recent milestones of the players you’ve played 1v1 against (new country counts, first perfect board, Mythical picks) and your latest matches with them. Tap a name to open their passport. Players who hide their profile don’t appear.
Daily quests: three small goals a day on the Play screen (for example “name 3 countries from Africa” or “make an Epic pick”), the same for everyone. They count live while you play, and from the boards you finished that day. All three done earns a 💡 hint token.
“Where it went wrong” on the results screen: every wrong guess, with the reason it didn’t fit (which of the two categories it failed, or both). Tap a country for its card. The flashcards from your misses are still there.
Higher or lower: a quick game (button on the Play screen). Two countries, guess whether the second has a higher or lower population, area, highest point, density, temperature or forest cover than the first. Pick one topic or mix them; your best streak is saved on the device.
Rarity colours on the passport: switch the stamps from “how often” to “how rare”. Each stamp is then coloured by the share of all players who have named that country (Mythical = under 5%). Needs at least 4 players with saved games.
Your GeoGrid year: a shareable recap image (games, points, countries, perfect boards, longest streak, most named country, rarest find). Find it in your Profile under Share; in December the Play screen links to it.
The descriptions of “Crossed by the Tropic of Cancer” and “…of Capricorn” now explain the line: latitude about 23.4° north or south of the equator. Boards and answers are unchanged.
Country of the day: a card on the Play screen with a different country every day (the same for everyone, no repeats until all 197 have had a turn). It shows the capital, continent and its rank by population and area, and whether it’s in your passport yet. Tap it for the full country card.
Weak spots: a button next to “New random board” that picks a board built around countries you haven’t named yet or have missed (it looks through 100 random boards and takes the one with the most of them). It plays like any random board.
Profile: a travel-passport page with your level and rank (Tourist up to Atlas, from points and countries), a stamp for every country you’ve named (with how often), the list of countries you haven’t named yet, most named countries, records and fun facts, trophy shelf, mastery map and a timeline. Open it in the new Profile tab or at /geogrid/profile/?name=YourName.
Look up any player by name, compare passports side by side, share a passport image or copy your profile link. Your photo is your favourite flag (changeable), and you can hide your profile from other players in its settings. A new country gets a stamp animation the first time you name it.
Mastery map in Stats: a globe (or flat map) that shades every country by how often you’ve answered it correctly: never, 1×, 2–3× or 4×+. Countries you missed and that are in your flashcards show in blue. Tap a country for its card.
Hint tokens: a perfect board played without hints earns one 💡 (you can hold up to 5). In a square’s guess window, “Use a hint” tells you the continent and first letter of a country that fits. A game with a hint stays out of the leaderboard, the rarity data and the “you beat X%” line, and it can’t earn a token.
The result image draws itself a few seconds after you finish, and now has a line under the score with your streak, how many players you beat and your rarest find. Share and Save work as before.
“Flag with a coat of arms or emblem” now includes Albania (its double-headed eagle).
Board version 13 · from board 20 (18 Oct) Boards made earlier keep the old list.
Better contrast on answered squares: the blurred colour glow is softer and sits behind a calmer backdrop, so country names and rarity labels are easier to read in light and dark mode.
Category descriptions no longer name countries: no more example lists, answer lists or “No. 20 is …” hints. They now only explain the rule (in English, German and Polish). Boards and answers are unchanged.
A small “made in 🇨🇭 with love” in the bottom-right corner of every page. Hover over it and the love gets scratched out.
Two more: “More men than women (51%+)” and “Top 20 in the World Happiness Report”.
Board version 12 · from board 19 (17 Oct)
23 more number categories: population shrank in 10 years / grew 30%+, 88%+ or under 25% live in cities, capital over 5 million people, 40%+ women in parliament, over 2,000 mm or under 250 mm of rain, heat record over 50 °C, 80%+ renewable electricity, over 10 t or under 0.3 t CO₂ per person, inflation over 10%, government debt over 100% of GDP, unemployment 10%+, independent in the 1960s, UN founding member, 20+ UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 100+ Summer Olympic medals / never won an Olympic medal, more than one time zone, 100–127 V mains electricity and capital east of 100° E.
Country cards now show these numbers too. Board version 11 · from board 19 (17 Oct)
After a game: “You beat X% of players today”, with a small chart of everyone’s scores and yours highlighted.
Phone vibration for right and wrong answers, rare finds, steals, the end of a game and when it’s your turn in 1v1 (Android; iPhones don’t allow it for web pages). A button next to the sound button turns it off.
1v1 victory screen: when a match ends, both players get a big result card with the winner, squares, points, rating change and the final grid, plus buttons for a rematch and GG WP.
1v1 at your own pace: pick “⏳ 1 day” as turn time and each player gets a whole day per move. “Your matches” in the 1v1 tab lists every game you’re in, and a dot on the 1v1 tab shows when it’s your turn.
Country cards: tap a country in the answers, best answers, database, stats or on the map to see its flag, where it is, its key numbers, its neighbours and every category it belongs to.
Flashcards: after a game, “Learn from this board” turns the common answers you missed into flip cards. They’re saved in Stats → Flashcards and come back for review after 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 days.
A right answer now flips the square over like a card, and claimed squares get a soft, blurred glow in their rarity colour (also in 1v1).
The results map is now a 3D globe you can spin and zoom; the tour flies from one answer to the next. The flat map is still there with one tap.
When you finish, your score adds up square by square with rising notes, and a perfect board or a Mythical pick ends in confetti.
Each new board opens with the categories stamping in and the squares dropping into place.
Stats: a calendar of the daily boards, coloured by how well you did each day. Tap a day to replay that board.
Seasonal touches: a small badge next to the logo on special days (Halloween from 25 Oct, GIS Day, International Mountain Day, snow in December, New Year, Earth Day, 1 August).
The GeoGrid logo now takes you back to today’s board from anywhere, and a “What’s new” link at the bottom of the game opens this log (with a dot when there’s something you haven’t seen yet).
This update log.
The Commonwealth and “Very high HDI” categories now explain what they are when you click on them.
The NATO, OPEC and G20 categories now explain what each organisation is, and who is in it.
After every guess, the row and column categories of that square light up green ✓ if the country fits and red ✗ if it doesn’t, so you can see which category a wrong answer missed. Works in the guess window, on the grid and in 1v1 (both players see each move).
23 new number-based categories: highest point above 6,000 m or 4,000–6,000 m, lowest point 100 m+ above sea level, average elevation above 1,000 m or under 150 m, capital within 10° of the Equator, 30–40° N or 40–50° N, economic growth 5%+ or under 1.5% in 2025, fertility rate 4+ or under 1.5, average temperature 26.5 °C+ or under 10 °C, over 60% or under 5% forest, population 10–20 M, 5–10 M or 1–5 M, area 10,000–50,000 km² or under 1,000 km², over 300 or under 15 people per km².
Replaces the 13 fun categories from earlier the same day. Board version 10 · from board 18 (16 Oct)
13 fun categories tried for a few hours (Eurovision host, Formula 1 champion, Tour de France winner, Olympic football gold, Ballon d’Or winner, country code is an English word, capital named after a person, capital has a double letter, no letter A, alternating consonants and vowels, exactly 6 letters, contains K, contains Y). Removed again before any daily board used them.
Board version 9 · random boards only
The ASEAN category now spells out what ASEAN is and lists its 11 members.
The size badge next to the logo always shows the grid being played right now (3×3, 4×4 or 5×5), also during a 1v1 match.
“Flag with 3 horizontal stripes” now counts Spain, Latvia, Rwanda, Jordan, Palestine and South Sudan.
Board version 8 · from board 16 (14 Oct)
Guess mode: the country outline was too easy as the 2nd clue and now comes 5th.
Guess tab: one mystery country a day, 6 guesses, with clues and the distance and direction to the answer after each guess.
Report a category: a ⚑ button on every category (and after a wrong answer) to say a country is missing, shouldn’t be in it, or the wording is unclear. Reports show up on the admin page.
“Main script isn’t the Latin alphabet” became “Uses a non-Latin script” and now includes Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which use Latin and Cyrillic.
Board version 7 · from board 15 (13 Oct)
New flags: the official designs in their true proportions, sharper and about 40% bigger. A bar now tells you when a new version of the game is ready to load.
“Capital shares the country’s name” missed countries like Brazil (Brasília) and Algeria (Algiers). It now uses a hand-checked list of 18 countries.
Board version 6 · from board 13
Exact days before 11 October are approximate.
Equatorial Guinea’s capital is now Ciudad de la Paz (official since January 2026).
Board version 5 · from board 7
Every category with fewer than 10 countries was replaced by a new one with at least 12, keeping the same number of categories.
Board version 4 · from board 7
The oil, coffee, wine and cocoa producer lists became top 20s instead of top 6 or top 10.
Board version 3 · from board 7
“GG WP” button after a 1v1 match: it pops up in big letters on your opponent’s screen.
After a game: the best answers for every square, a replay you can save as a GIF (solo and 1v1), and an animated tour of your answers on the world map.
Sound effects, and in 1v1 you can see which square your opponent is looking at.
Build a board: pick your own rows and columns and share the board with a code.
41 new categories, among them GDP per person, life expectancy, median age, top producers, volcanoes, highest mountains, capital elevation, rivers and seas, female leaders, federations, daylight saving time, former colonies, flag features and currencies.
Board version 2 · from board 5 (3 Oct)
Rarity tiers from Common to Mythical, based on how many players picked a more common country, plus leaderboards, a friends leaderboard and a shareable result card.
New look with a map-sheet design and a dark mode.
Accounts: reserve your name with a recovery code (no email or password needed), and 1v1 Elo ratings.
Install on the iPhone home screen; solo play then works offline.
World map of your answers, German and Polish, statistics, a daily streak, and 3×3 and 5×5 boards.
Unlimited-guesses mode.
GeoGrid 4×4 launches: board 1, a new daily board every day, random boards, and 1v1 matches with 60-second turns (optionally you can steal a square with a rarer country).