Daily ranking puzzle

Geo Sort: how to play

A daily puzzle: place eight countries into eight categories, one at a time. Each placement adds that country's world rank. Lowest total wins.

Play today's Geo Sort

What is Geo Sort?

Geo Sort gives you eight country cards and eight categories: Land Area, Coastline, FIFA Ranking (men), Military Strength, Avg Annual Temperature, UNESCO Sites, Population Density and Highest Point. Each country has a world rank in every category. You put each country where its rank is closest to number 1.

The catch is that the cards arrive one at a time and each category takes only one country. You cannot see which countries come later, and a placement cannot be undone. Spending Land Area on the first big country may leave nothing good for a bigger one further down the deck.

Players: 1
Countries per day: 8, drawn from a pool of 30
Categories: 8, each used once
Scoring: Sum of ranks, lower is better
New puzzle: Every day

How to play

1Look at the country card at the top, which shows the flag, the name and which card you are on out of eight.
2Press the open category you think this country ranks best in. Its rank appears straight away and is added to your score.
3Repeat with the next card, choosing only from the categories still marked OPEN.
4After the eighth card, read your total, the best possible total and the gap between them.
5Press Play again to retry the same eight countries for a lower score.

Scoring

Your score is the sum of the eight ranks you collected. Placing Canada in Coastline adds 1, because Canada has the longest coastline. Placing Switzerland there adds 193. Lower totals are better.

Rank 1 always means the most: the largest area, the longest coastline, the highest peak, the densest population and, for temperature, the hottest climate.

The results show the best possible score for the day and how far above it you finished. Your lowest total of the day is kept as Today's best.

Tips

Temperature favours hot countries. Ghana, the Philippines, Nigeria and Indonesia rank near the top, while Canada, Russia and Norway rank close to last.
Population Density suits small, crowded countries. Bangladesh and South Korea score well there, and Australia, Canada and Russia very badly.
Avoid disasters as well as chasing top ranks. A landlocked country in Coastline or a flat one in Highest Point can add well over 100 in one move.
Highest Point is about one peak, not overall terrain. China, Pakistan and India take the top three places.
The cards come in the same order on every replay that day, so use your first run to learn the deck and the second to plan around it.

What you learn

Geo Sort builds a rounded picture of each country. You weigh physical geography (size, coast, mountains, climate) against human geography (density, heritage sites, sport and military power) and learn where each country stands out. It also separates related ideas, such as a large country versus a densely populated one.

Questions and answers

Is the daily puzzle the same for everyone?: Yes. The eight countries and their order are set by the calendar date. The date comes from your device, so the puzzle changes at your local midnight.
Can I play more than once a day?: Yes. Play again restarts the same deck, and your lowest score counts as the day's best.
Is my score saved?: Your best score for the current day is saved in the browser on that device. A new day starts with no best score set.
Can I change a placement?: No. Once a country is placed, that category is locked. To try another arrangement, finish the run and press Play again.