The Best History Guessing Games for iPhone

Most history guessing games were built for a desktop browser. They open on a phone, but maps get cramped, sliders get fiddly, and there's no daily reminder when you're about to lose a streak.

This list only includes native iPhone apps: games you download from the App Store that are designed for a touchscreen. Every one is free to download. We checked each listing in September 2026.

We make Where&When, and it's on this list. We've tried to be straight about what each app does well and where it falls short, ours included.

Quick comparison

1. Where&When: best for famous events across all of history

Guess: place and year · Eras: 1st century to the 2020s

Each round of Where&When shows an AI-generated scene of a real historical event. There's no caption or text hint. You drop a pin on a satellite map, enter the year, and submit before the 60-second clock runs out.

The reveal is where you learn something. You see how many kilometers and years off you were, then the name of the event and a short account of what happened and why it mattered.

• Daily Challenge: the same five events for everyone, once a day, with streaks and an optional evening reminder.
• Topics: themed sets, including Revolutions & Regime Change, Disaster Log and Breakthroughs.
• Tournament: send a friend a link or a code, and you each play the same five events on your own iPhone, whenever suits you. You see both guesses side by side after each event, and get a notification when they finish.

Why pick it: it covers ancient, medieval and modern history, and each round shows the event itself rather than a photo of what survives today. Photo-based apps can show you ruins as they look today, but not the moment history happened there.

Trade-offs: the scenes are reconstructions, not archival photos. Topics and Tournament need Sign in with Apple. The event pool is curated, so it's smaller than a photo archive.

Download Where&When on the App Store

2. TimeGuessr: best for real photographs

Guess: place and year · Eras: the photography era

TimeGuessr is the biggest name in the genre, with more than two thousand App Store ratings. Each round is a real historical photograph from somewhere in the world: you place a pin, choose a year and score on both. The daily game gives everyone the same photos, and you can challenge friends and compare progress on leaderboards.

Why pick it: real photographs, a large and active community, and it's also on Android and the web if your friends aren't on iPhone.

Trade-offs: everything comes from the age of photography, so nothing is older than the 19th century.

3. MapTap: best for map lovers

Guess: place · Eras: events from across history

MapTap gives you five places a day tied to events that happened on today's date in history, and you tap them on a 3D globe. Each location comes with a short piece of historical context. Outside the daily game there are 50+ practice challenges, covering capitals, major cities and themed collections.

Why pick it: a beautiful 3D globe, strong daily-habit features like leaderboards, badges and streaks, and a big player base.

Trade-offs: you never guess a year. History is the theme, but geography is the skill.

4. Whendle: best for pure year guessing

Guess: year · Eras: 1900 to today

Each day Whendle picks one year and reveals five events from it, one at a time, from most obscure to best known. You guess after each clue. A white square means you're in the right decade, and yellow means you're one year off. Events are drawn from topics like science, sport, music and news.

Why pick it: it's a quick Wordle-style ritual that builds your sense of 20th-century chronology.

Trade-offs: there are no images or maps, and nothing before 1900.

5. World History Quiz: WhenWhere

Guess: place and date · Eras: varied

WhenWhere shows iconic historical photographs and asks you to pinpoint where and when each was taken, with a backstory and mini-quizzes attached to each photo. It has a smaller community than TimeGuessr but a similar idea.

Why pick it: if you enjoy TimeGuessr's format and want a second image pool.

6. Past Puzzle

Guess: year · Eras: varied

Past Puzzle is a daily history puzzle: four events, one year to find. It's light and quick, and the level changes at midnight.

Why pick it: a two-minute daily year puzzle to go with a longer game.

7. GeoGuessr: best for the geography half

Guess: place · Eras: the present day

The official GeoGuessr app drops you into real-world Street View and has a Daily Challenge. It's free to download with some free gameplay, but full access to maps, modes and multiplayer needs a subscription.

Why pick it: it's the best training there is for reading landscapes, roads and signs, and that skill carries into every where-and-when game.

Trade-offs: it isn't a history game, and most of it is behind the subscription.

8. WorldGuessr: the free Street View option

Guess: place · Eras: the present day

WorldGuessr is a free alternative to GeoGuessr with no paywall or play limits. You're dropped into Street View anywhere on Earth and score up to 5,000 points a round.

Why pick it: unlimited free geography practice.

Trade-offs: no history at all. It's here as a training partner.

How to choose

• You want to learn history while you play: Where&When. Every round ends with the story.
• You love old photographs: TimeGuessr, then WhenWhere.
• You want a quick daily habit: MapTap for maps, Whendle or Past Puzzle for years, Where&When's Daily Challenge for both.
• You want to play against a friend: Where&When's Tournament challenges, or TimeGuessr's challenge links.
• You want the geography skill without history: WorldGuessr for free, GeoGuessr if you'll pay.

What about browser games on iPhone?

Popular browser games like WhenTaken, Chronophoto, EraGuessr and WenWare will run in Safari. They aren't native apps, though, so you won't get notifications, and some layouts are designed for a bigger screen. They're covered in GeoGuessr for history and daily history games.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a GeoGuessr app for iPhone?

Yes. GeoGuessr has an official iPhone app, but full access needs a subscription. WorldGuessr is a free alternative. Neither asks you to guess the year. For that, try Where&When or TimeGuessr.

What is the best free history game for iPhone?

For guessing where and when, Where&When and TimeGuessr are both free to download. Where&When covers events from ancient history onward, and TimeGuessr uses real photographs from the camera era.

Can I play a history guessing game against a friend?

Yes. Where&When's Tournament sends your friend a link or a code, and you each play the same five events on your own iPhone whenever you like. Both guesses appear side by side after each event, and the higher total wins. TimeGuessr also lets you challenge friends and compare scores on its leaderboards.