Free · No sign-up to play · Built for curious minds
Maps lie about size. Find out the truth.
Most world maps stretch land near the poles, so Greenland looks as big as Africa. Scale Shift lets you drag any country or empire to its real size, travel through 4,000 years of borders, and test yourself in a new challenge every day.
- years
- 4,000years
- map snapshots
- 49map snapshots
- border events
- 104border events
- daily puzzle shapes
- 226daily puzzle shapes
Daily challenge
Which is bigger?
5 new puzzles today. Web maps will try to fool you.
Play today's 5Today's top players
Full leaderboard →Explore Scale Shift
Everything on the site, in one place.
- The game · New every dayDaily challengeFive “which is bigger?” puzzles a day, the same for everyone. Countries, US states and empires from Rome to the Mongols. Build a streak, share your score and climb the leaderboard.Play now →
- The mapDrag any country or empire anywhere on Earth and watch it shrink or grow to its real size. Step through 4,000 years of borders.Open the map →
- LeaderboardSee who scored best today and who has the most points of all time. Sign up with your email and a nickname to join in.See the rankings →
- Eras49 snapshots of world borders, from 2000 BCE to today, each with what changed and why.Browse eras →
- Timeline104 key moments when land changed hands, with when it was taken and when (or if) it was made official.Read the timeline →
- Disputed borders19 places where who controls the land and who the world recognizes don't match, from Crimea to Antarctica.See the disputes →
Jump straight in
This week's picks (new every Monday; this set since October 19). Each one opens the map with the comparison already set up.
- SurprisingAlexander's empire on the USEverything Alexander conquered by 323 BCE, laid over the United States.
- SurprisingGreenland vs DR CongoOn most maps Greenland looks several times bigger. In reality DR Congo is slightly larger.
- SurprisingRussia at the equatorStill the world's largest country, but watch how much it shrinks once you remove the polar stretch.
- ControversialHow the United States grewPress play to go from the 13 colonies to coast-to-coast, taken from Native nations, Britain, Spain and Mexico.
- ControversialCrimeaSeized by Russia in 2014, recognized as Ukraine by most of the world. It's about the size of Belgium.
- ControversialRussian Empire 1914 vs Russia todayFinland, Poland, the Baltics, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia: everything Russia ruled and lost.