Time-waster: How many countries can you name in five minutes?

by Nik Fletcher Feb 4th 2008

So you've got the Monday blues, and are looking for Download Squad to find you something stimulating, perhaps even intellectual to waste some time with? Look no further for we've got the perfect thing for you. "How Many Countries Can You Name" is a very simple, yet effective game in which all you need to do is think of, and type into your browser, as many countries names as you possibly can. In five minutes. With nearly 300 countries in the world, it's just as much a game of 'how fast can you type?' as it is 'just how many countries can you name?'

In the name of research (honest!), we've been playing with this a little, and managed to get the number of remaining (i.e. un-named) countries down towards the 200 mark, but we're sure that readers can do better!

[Via unEASYsilence]

Tags: geography, time-waster

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

RP said 3:23PM on 2-04-2008

Thanks, now my brain hurts! :-)

I only got 42. Where's the one for the 50 United States?

RP said 5:49PM on 2-04-2008

OK, I got 54. And I learned that I can't spell "Turks and Caicos Islands". :-)

Donald said 4:53PM on 2-04-2008

63 here. Thank heavens for watching Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego as a kid, I could hear The Chief (RIP) reading off country names as I was trying to type them.

Peter said 5:18PM on 2-04-2008

Dino said 8:48PM on 2-04-2008

I got 103...but I kept spelling things in Spanish (Corea, Brasil) or thinking in Arabic (مصر، المغرب)...The interface is too slow and deleting one you've already done is a pain, but fun game!

Jeebus said 12:45PM on 2-05-2008

Holy crap, 103 and that's WITH spelling incorrectly (Spanish/Arabic) and correcting??

Paranoised said 12:45AM on 2-05-2008

I got 65 on my first try but I think I would've done better if the system was more forgiving of spelling errors.

SJ said 10:13AM on 2-05-2008

62. Like everyone else says...spell it right the first time.

Jamesey said 4:08PM on 2-05-2008

they listed hong kong as a country. that's inaccurate. Taiwan is debatable too.

Jeebus said 12:44PM on 2-05-2008

Got 60.

Aubree said 7:54PM on 4-02-2008

140. My weak spot is islands.

Karin said 8:59PM on 4-10-2008

This is fun and I'm a geography nut. However, once you get to where you only have 135 countries left --- the game just suddenly stops. The counter freezes and the only way you can figure out how many you have is to do the math yourself. I've tried it many times and as soon as it hits that 135 (sometimes I am not watching...but I know it's there or one or two after).....it's frozen as a block of ice!! What gives???

Karin said 10:12PM on 4-12-2008

Aubre, how did you get it to go beyond 135. I've even tried this at three other computers around town and it wouldn't work at any of these either. So, it isn't my computer... how did you manage to get more than 135? Is there some way to keep the clock going? It just feezes up everywhere I go to try it?

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