How to play

A game of How Many? goes room → join → answer → guess → result, repeated for each round, and ends with the final ranking. Here's every step in the order you'll see it, including what the host sees and what everyone else sees.

Before you start

• One phone per person. A web browser is all you need — no app to install and no account to create.
• A room holds 2 to 300 people, host included. If the host chooses Host only, the host doesn't count as a player, so you need at least two other people to start.
• A TV, projector or stream is optional. You can show the big screen on it, but the whole game also works with phones alone.

1. The host creates a room

On the home screen, type Your name and tap Create a room. You'll see "How do you want to run it?" with two choices to make.

• Hosting style — with Play along, the host answers and guesses like everyone else while running the game. With Host only, the host stays out of the scoring and just sees a status board and controls. That's the one for streams, classes and events.
• How to set it up — Quick start opens a room with five general-knowledge questions, 20 seconds to answer, 15 to guess and one practice round. Set it up myself opens a room with default settings for you to adjust in the lobby.

The room's question language comes from the language your screen is in when you create it. A room made from the English screen gets the English question packs. It can't be changed later, so switch your screen language first if you want the other set.

2. The lobby: players join by QR code or room code

Once the room exists, the top of the host's screen shows a four-letter room code, a QR code to join and a join link.

• Scan the QR code with a phone camera. It opens the game with the code already filled in — type a name and tap Join.
• Join with a code: go to howmany.games, type your name and the four letters.
• Share the link: for people who aren't in the room, tap Copy and send the link.

Names can be up to 12 characters, and no two people in a room can have the same name — you'll be asked to pick another if it's taken.

What the host can do in the lobby

• Questions: choose Party Mix, Question packs, Write your own, Players ask, or Spotlight. Each one is explained in Game modes.
• Rounds and Rules & timers: pick a timer preset (Quick, Standard, Streamer) or set each step yourself (5–300 seconds), and turn on a practice round, the one-shot boost, double points in the last round, or show who got it right.
• Lock room: stops anyone new from joining.
• Manage players: tap a name to remove them or hand over hosting.
• Sound effects on this phone: when you're around a table without a big screen, the host's phone alone plays the start, reveal and final ranking sounds.

Players see who has joined and "Waiting for … to start". When everyone's in, the host taps Start game.

3. Practice round (if it's on)

With a practice round, the first question is a warm-up with no points — in English rooms it's "How many legs does a spider have?". Almost everyone knows the answer, and that's the point: you find out that even with an easy question, guessing how many got it is surprisingly hard. The practice round never uses the host's own questions. On the practice result, the host taps Start question 1 and scoring begins.

4. Answer

The same question appears on every phone. How you answer depends on the type:

• Multiple choice: tap an option and confirm.
• Type your answer: spaces and capital letters don't matter, and in English a leading "a", "an" or "the" and trailing punctuation are ignored. For number answers, "1,440", "1440" and "1.44k" all count as the same value.
• Poll: an either-or question with no right answer. Go with your gut.

You can't change an answer once it's submitted. Screens only show how many have answered ("7 of 12 answered"), never who picked what. When everyone who's connected has answered, or time runs out, the game moves on to guessing. The host can tap Close now instead of waiting. Anyone who doesn't answer in time is counted as wrong.

5. Guess: where the real game happens

When answering closes, the answer is revealed and you see whether you got it. Then comes the question that matters: "How many got it right?" You can pick anything from zero up to the number of people who were answering ("Out of 12 people who answered").

• Choose the number with the + and − buttons, the quick marks (Nobody, A few, Half, Most, Everyone), or type it in. The screen shows roughly what percentage of the room that is.
• Open Review the last 3 questions to see how many got the previous questions right, and how far off you were.
• If the room has the boost turned on, you can tick Use my boost on this prediction once per game.
• Confirm your number and you're done. A confirmed guess can't be changed.

Even if you got the question wrong or had no idea, you guess just like everyone else — points come only from guesses. The exact math, with worked examples, is on the scoring page.

6. The result

When everyone has guessed or the timer runs out, the result appears.

• The actual number who got it right, with up to 20 names (then "+N more"). If the host turned off Show who got it right, you only see the count.
• If ten or more people got it wrong, the most common wrong answers are grouped and shown — never with names.
• What did we expect? — a bar chart of how many people guessed each number.
• The This round tab shows your points and how far off you were; Leaderboard shows the running totals.

Results have no timer. Talk it over, and when the host taps Next question the next round begins — after the last round it's See final ranks. If the question has a link attached, Read more appears now.

7. Final ranks

After the last round, total points decide the ranking. If two players tie, the one whose guesses were off by less over the whole game ranks higher. Below the ranking, Game highlights names the player with the most exact predictions, the biggest climb in a single round, and the biggest surprise — the question with the largest average prediction error. Share results turns the final ranking into an image you can drop into the group chat.

8. Play again

On the final ranks the host gets two buttons:

• Play again, same settings: a new game with the same people and settings, starting from zero.
• Change settings and play again: back to the lobby to switch modes or questions. Players don't have to rejoin.

Within the same room, question packs and the built-in spotlight questions won't repeat a question until you've used them all.

The big screen

In the lobby's Big screen section, copy the link and open it on a laptop or TV-connected device, or tap Open on this device. The big screen is display-only; the host keeps running the game from their phone.

• Before the game, it shows the join QR code, the room code and how many have joined. During the game the QR and code stay in a corner so latecomers can still get in.
• During a round, it shows the question, the timer and how many have answered — never anyone's answer.
• On results, it shows the real count, who got it, common wrong answers, who read the room best and the spread of guesses, then switches to the standings.
• When the big screen is open, sound plays there instead of on the host's phone. Click its sound button once to enable it.

Host vs player screens

Things that happen mid-game

• Latecomers who join during a game watch the current round and play from the next one, starting at zero.
• Dropped connections: reopen the game in the same browser and you're back in your seat with your score. The game doesn't pause while you're gone, though.
• If the host drops for more than 30 seconds, the earliest-joined player who's still connected takes over.

Want to score higher? Read tips for guessing well. Other questions are answered in the FAQ.

Play now