Professional Google Street View: First World Championship for online map trend GeoGuessr

One of the latest viral video game sensations, where players take part in a digital treasure hunt to find random locations around the world brought in over 70,000 viewers to one of its first tournaments.

Players from around the world flew to Sweden to take part in the tournament in the hopes of winning a cut of a $50,000 prize.

The game, GeoGuessr, relies on Google Street View. Players are shown a random location from Google’s database of mapped streets, and they have to guess where in the world they are being shown. The closer they are, the more points they get.

Played competitively, two players will be shown the same location and the player who guesses closer wins the round.

A local man competed to represent the UK in the first day of the event, and said it “was just an incredible experience”.

Hailing from Swindon, Stephen said it was the first time he was “put into the spotlight” and the game’s developers did “a fantastic job organising such a competition for the first time ever”.

Stephen, known online as Wolfrekker said: “There were many doubts about the format and the event’s success at first.”

He said he “first got involved in the commnity [around the game] over 5 years ago – when the game was run by a group of guys who made the game as a side hobby and the community was small and close-knit”. But since then, he has been “watching the game grow” to such an extent that an event like this could be hosted with such interest.

The winner of the cup, Pieter “Consus” Noordijk, represented the Netherlands and took home the first place prize of $15,000 as well as an action packed trip to Italy provided by the team behind the recent Mission: Impossible film.

Anybody can play the game on a web browser or a smartphone, making the barrier for entry for new players incredibly low – but the skill ceiling is nearly endless with professional players being able to tell whole countries apart in a split second.

If you’re interested in seeing how it works, this is a map of locations within Winchester that we put together that you can give a try: Play