How the rarest answer game works
You get a prompt, like "Name a fruit". You have 20 seconds to type an answer. The catch: the answer has to be correct, and the fewer players who give the same answer, the more points you get.
- Read the prompt. Every prompt has a clear right and wrong, like "Name a fruit" or "Name an animal that lives in the ocean".
- Type fast. The timer is 20 seconds, so there's no time to look things up.
- Get scored. If your answer is on our list of valid answers, you score based on how rare it is. If it isn't on the list, it doesn't count.
Typing "apple" is safe, but lots of people will do the same, so you'll score low. Typing "jackfruit" or "persimmon" is riskier, but if it's valid and few others say it, you score high.
How scoring works
Your score is out of 100. The formula is simple: the smaller the share of players who gave your answer, the closer you get to 100. If almost everyone said "apple", it earns very little. If only a handful said "durian", it earns a lot.
On the first day, before we have player data, the game uses a preset popularity for each answer, estimated from how likely a teenager is to think of it first. As more people play, the numbers come from real answers.
Some details that help:
- Spelling matters less than you think. Capital letters, accents and common plurals are handled for you.
- Answers that aren't in our list are marked invalid and aren't saved.
- Weird is not the same as rare. A made-up word scores nothing, so you need an answer that is real but unusual.
Daily mode and unlimited mode
- Daily mode: 5 new prompts each day. You get one try per day on this device.
- Unlimited mode: play as many rounds as you want, using prompts from earlier days. It's good practice if you want to build up your list of rare answers.
Play it with friends
The best way to play is to create a room and send the link. Everyone answers the same prompts and a leaderboard shows who found the rarest answers. Names are limited to 20 characters and links and bad words are filtered out.
Try these ways to play:
- Group chat challenge: send the room link and give everyone until midnight.
- Strategy talk: argue about whether to go safe or risky before the timer starts.
- Loser's punishment: the lowest scorer has to change their profile picture, or spin the truth or dare wheel.
Make your own quiz, too
Want to see how well your friends know *you*? Make your own quiz in about a minute and send it around. Looking for more? Visit the games page.