muta.pro / Geogessr / Modes / Year shot

Year shot

Guess when the panorama was taken

Year shot is not about place but about time. The panorama is the same, but the answer goes on a slider of years: you have to guess when the camera car actually drove past. The date comes from the panorama metadata and is nowhere on screen.

Google's camera cars drive the same streets every few years, and each pass leaves the marks of its era: car models, advertising, operator branding, the quality of the capture itself. The mode is built on those marks, and the date comes from the panorama metadata, never shown on screen.

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How a game goes

1. Look at the cars

Model ranges age far more visibly than buildings. Bodywork from the 2010s is unmistakable, and electric cars push the estimate towards the 2020s.

2. Read the advertising

Film posters, phone adverts and operator logos date a frame most precisely: brands restyle and device models last a year or two.

3. Judge the capture quality

Early panoramas are murkier, with visible stitching seams and blurred plates. A crisp image almost always means a capture after 2016.

How to play this mode

Look at the cars — model ranges age far more visibly than architecture. Then come mobile-operator branding, film and phone adverts, and the quality of the capture itself: early panoramas are noticeably murkier with cruder stitching. Building sites and new blocks date a frame too.

Tactics

Coverage geography helps: some countries were swept once and never revisited, while cities in Western Europe have several passes and a wider spread.

Move the slider towards what your strongest cue suggests rather than towards a 'safe' middle year. Being two years out costs about three thousand points; five years costs nearly all of them.

Common mistakes

Mode parameters

Rounds per game5
Time limitnone
Camera restrictionsnone
Anchor points147
Available in duelsno
Hintsyes

How scoring works

A direct hit is worth 5000 points per round, and the score falls off exponentially with distance. A five-round game is worth up to 25,000. Distances are measured on the server against its own copy of the locations, so a result cannot be forged from the browser.

What a miss costs

MissPoints per round
direct hit5,000
1 km4,998
10 km4,975
50 km4,877
200 km4,524
500 km3,894
1,000 km3,033
2,000 km1,839
5,000 km410
other hemisphere34

Location coverage

What the pool for this mode is made of:

Europe29
Asia and Oceania26
The Americas20
Africa and the Middle East10
Russia and the CIS62

Frequently asked

What years appear?

From 2007 to the present. Most fall between 2012 and 2021.

How is it scored?

Five thousand for the exact year, then roughly half as much for each year you are out.

Is the year visible on the panorama?

No, the capture-date display is deliberately switched off.

Is the score verified on the server?

No: only the browser knows the answer, so results are marked unverified, as in the country streak.

Play

Other modes

🎯ClassicFive rounds anywhere in the world 📅Daily challengeThe same five places for everyone DuelOne on one, same five places Blitz30 seconds per round 🔒HardcoreNo panning, zooming or moving 🔥Country streakName the country, keep the streak 💡FlashFive seconds to look, then from memory 🎲Last standMiss the bar and you are out
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