Guessing 30 Countries in GeoGuessr's Country Streaks: What to Look for in the Scenery to Narrow Down the Country

COUNTRY STREAKS is a mode in which players answer only the country rather than the exact location, competing for the longest streak of correct answers. The player describes it as a beginner-friendly mode and decided to play up to 30 countries this time. The first round showed typical Greenland scenery, so they selected Denmark on the map and got it right. Denmark is chosen for Greenland scenery because answers in this mode are given at the country level. The player recalls, "I was glad an easy location came up."

One of the clues the player used most often was the poles standing by the roadside. In round 2, they spotted a pole commonly seen in Turkey. However, since it closely resembles Australian poles, they checked the direction of the sun just to be safe, confirming they were in the Northern Hemisphere before answering Turkey. When a similar clue exists in multiple countries, the approach is to back it up with other information.

Round 7 featured a four-lane road with a median strip. The player says they feel this kind of wide arterial road is often seen in the suburbs of Turkey. In addition, the same pole as in round 2 was standing there, so they chose Turkey again. Elsewhere, in round 16, they identified Germany based on a pole commonly found in Germany and a guardrail called the "B-type." In round 22, they instantly answered Iceland upon recognizing a yellow pole as Icelandic. In round 28, they zoomed into the distance, found a pole commonly seen in Czechia and Slovakia, and narrowed the candidates down to those two countries.

The color and shape of road lines were also clues used repeatedly. In round 4, the yellow center line and right-hand traffic led them to guess somewhere in North or South America. In round 8, they pointed to an edge line drawn with long dashes as a feature often seen in Norway. In round 12, the center line was white, traffic drove on the left, and the road was fairly wide, so they judged it to be a typical residential area in Australia or New Zealand.

In round 20, they identified the Netherlands based on three points: right-hand traffic, green distance signs, and yellow front and rear license plates. Round 26 was a road with yellow edge lines. According to the player, this is a feature of the Middle East and southern African countries. On top of that, they answered South Africa, noting that left-hand traffic combined with the particular Street View car and camera in use is "only South Africa so far."

The car and camera that captured the Street View imagery can themselves be clues for telling countries apart. In round 4, after narrowing it down to the Americas from the center line and driving side, they pinpointed Guatemala because the Street View car with a roof rack was visible. Round 9 was an unpaved road lined with birch trees. The player felt it was likely Finland since it had been captured with a relatively low-quality camera. After moving a little, they found a pedestrian crossing sign with five lines drawn on it and guessed with high confidence that it was Finland.

In round 13, they remarked that it had an Eastern European feel—more precisely, "the feel of photos taken by the Street View car commonly used in Eastern Europe." According to the player, much of the imagery in this region was taken in winter and tends to feel melancholy, but if you move a little the capture date changes, so that melancholy quickly stops mattering. In this round, they judged it to be a European country from the blue strip on the left side of the license plate. They then answered Bulgaria on the grounds that Cyrillic and Latin script were used side by side and that a high-quality camera had been used, and the national flag was also visible nearby.

More clues related to the Street View car followed. Round 15 was a combination of a ger, a mobile dwelling, and a Street View car typical of Mongolia. Round 18 was a brown, dry, flat landscape captured by a large truck, so they judged it to be typical Senegal. Regarding Tunisia in round 17, the player only said, "You basically get chased around by this car." In round 19, the camera quality suddenly changed partway through, and there was a moment where they stepped back once to get past it.

In round 5, next to a transparent satellite dish of the kind common in Brazil, they found an advertisement that appeared to be in Portuguese. Going from memory, the player explained that Brazilian license plates are fairly long horizontally and that older ones had an all-white background. They also added that because Brazil tends to suffer from water shortages, water tanks like these are often seen at individual homes. In round 10, they judged it to be "pretty Brazil-like" from the red soil and signs with black backs.

In round 3, they answered instantly based on the green three-wheeled taxis commonly seen in Bangladesh. The pale yellow cars in round 14 were Colombian taxis. The player rated them as extremely useful in this game, since the city name can be read from the side or roof of the vehicle.

In round 6, they looked around and confirmed the Northern Hemisphere, a yellow center line, and right-hand traffic, narrowing it down to a choice between the United States and Canada. Explaining the deciding factor, the player said that when gazing at the shape of the blur with two bumps, "the outline of Canada vaguely emerges." In other words, they made the distinction based on how the Street View car is blurred.

The same two-way choice came up in round 19. The center line was white, which made it look like it could be Europe, but the license plate had a North American shape and the surrounding text was in English. Taking the direction of the sun into account as well, they judged it to be North America. The player joked that last time they had distinguished them by the blur shape, but that method "can't be used if you get kidnapped or something," so this time they decided to look for other clues as well. Just as they were about to say that the blur shape made it look like the US, they spotted a speed limit sign unique to the United States and got it right.

In many rounds, written information was the deciding factor. In round 21, a sign read "Wien" (Vienna), revealing that they were near the Austrian capital. Round 24 was a very affluent-looking place, and the player listed Dubai, Singapore, and Shenzhen as candidates. Thinking these could be distinguished by language, they searched for text, found Arabic script, and answered Dubai.

In round 27, the wooden utility poles and dry, Mediterranean-style vegetation led them to think it was probably Spain or Portugal. Roadsides like these often have no-hunting signs, so they were watching carefully, but the player admits they completely missed them. Instead, they luckily found a sign in Portuguese. Since Portuguese is used almost exclusively in Portugal in this region, that alone was enough to identify the country.

Some rounds did not go smoothly. In round 12, after narrowing it down to Australia or New Zealand, the player intended to head to the exit of the residential area. There is a high probability of a "GIVE WAY" sign at the exit, and they wanted to show off the well-known technique of telling the countries apart by the color of its lettering. However, they got lost inside the residential area. In the end, they chose Australia on the grounds that they thought they had seen a yellow New South Wales license plate.

Round 25 was a cold-looking harbor area. Thinking a wharf would offer little information, they first moved inland. The license plates on passenger cars were standard European ones. Seeing Falu red–style houses in the distance, they guessed it was a country with fjords, such as Norway or Denmark, but could not get any information on the unpaved road. Reaching a paved road, they read every sign they could, but could not recall what language the strings of text that looked like street names were in. Even so, the presence of the letter "æ" narrowed it down to Norway or Denmark. According to the player, the languages of these two countries use the same letters, so they cannot be distinguished by the type of characters alone. They kept searching for a word they knew or some other clue, and finally settled it upon finding a Danish word they recognized.

In round 28, after narrowing it down to Czechia or Slovakia from the poles, they headed into town in search of something to tell them apart. As the player explained, Czech and Slovak are very similar, but each has letters that appear only in that language, so if you are lucky enough to see one, you can tell them apart. As other ways to distinguish them, they mentioned that Czech direction signs protrude outward and that many Czech signs have an outer border in the same color as the background. The sign they found matched these features, and they judged it likely to be Czechia.

In some rounds, they judged from the terrain or overall landscape. In round 11, they found the remains of a utility pole with large holes in it. The player reasoned that, given the size of the holes, Romania was likely, but since Hungary also has utility poles with holes, they decided to look for a few more clues. Hungarian signs have an easily recognizable feature, so their idea was that moving until they found a sign would let them tell the two apart. In the end, they found a sign decorated in the colors of the national flag and answered Romania.

In round 23, they layered several conditions—a horizontally long license plate, mountains visible to the east, slender square utility poles with grooves, and the sea visible to the west—and pinpointed the area around the Atacama Desert in Chile's far north. Round 29 was typical Irish or British scenery, and the player noted that gates of this shape are often seen in Ireland. In the final round 30, they named Lesotho as a country with very distinctive trapezoidal mountains, finishing their run of 30 countries.

After playing, the player said of GeoGuessr that although they had only just started, the rules are simple and it is easy to get into. They like that it can be enjoyed from a variety of perspectives, not only geography and language but also history, science, and more. They also mentioned that it seems to have recently been used in school education and that world championships have been held, and wrapped up the video by noting that it can be played easily in a browser.