The age guessing game: how to play it (and win)
Everyone plays it without noticing: a new colleague, an actor in a series, the person next to you on the train. “How old do you think they are?” Turned into a game, guessing ages is quick, it works with any group and it always ends in a debate. Here's how to play it well.
The classic rules
Show a photo of a real person. Everyone says or writes the age they think, without talking. Then reveal the real age.
Score by distance: the closer you are, the more points. In AgeDart a perfect guess (a bullseye) is worth 5,000 points and every year away costs you some of them. Five or ten faces make a round, and the highest total wins.
Five variants that change the game
Who's older? Two faces side by side: tap the older one. It's faster than guessing a number and surprisingly hard when the gap is small.
Sort by age: four faces to order from youngest to oldest. One mistake moves two places, so it rewards a calm eye.
The impostor: three people share an age and one doesn't. Spot the one who doesn't fit.
Decade dash: put six faces into decades (18–29, 30s, 40s…) against the clock.
More or less: one face, one age. Is the person older or younger than that? Decide fast.
At a party: the TV version
Party games die when someone has to install an app. In AgeDart's party mode the host opens agedart.app/tv on the TV or a laptop, and guests join from their phone's browser by scanning the QR code. No accounts, no downloads.
Each party has 12 questions mixing the variants above, the last one counts double, and the scoreboard appears on the big screen after each question. It works for 2 people or for 20.
How to guess better
Start with the decade, then adjust. Deciding first between “late twenties” and “mid-thirties” avoids the biggest misses.
Look at the eyes and the neck before the hair. Hair colour and style change with fashion and dye; the skin around the eyes changes more slowly.
Don't trust the photo blindly. Light from above, a low camera or tiredness add years; soft front light takes them away. Correct for the photo, not just the face.
Watch your own bias. Most people guess people of their own age group better than others. Playing faces from many countries and ages trains that out.
Play it online
If you don't have a group at hand, AgeDart's daily challenge gives everyone in the world the same five faces each day, with a ranking at the end. In the app you also get live 1v1 duels, turn-based games with friends and a weekly league.
And if you want to be on the other side, post a selfie: real players guess your age and you find out how old you look by country, age group and gender.
Put your eye to the test
Guess the age of real people from all over the world, or post a selfie and find out how old the world thinks you are.
Play today's challenge on the web