How scoring works
In How Many?, getting the question right is worth nothing. Points come only from how close your guess was to the number of people who actually got it right. This page spells out the exact formulas the game server uses, with worked examples.
A few terms first
- Answerers: everyone who's supposed to answer this question. If you don't answer in time you still count as an answerer, and you count as wrong. The host in Host only mode, the question writer in Players ask, and the spotlight player in Spotlight are not answerers.
- The actual number: how many answerers got it right. For a poll, it's how many picked the side being counted; in Spotlight, how many matched the spotlight player's pick.
- Error: the gap between your guess and the actual number. Guess 5 when it was 3 and your error is 2 — over or under makes no difference.
- Guess range: from 0 to the number of answerers. Question writers and spotlight players don't answer, but they do guess.
There are two scoring methods, depending on the number of answerers: 9 or more uses rank scoring, 8 or fewer uses distance scoring.
Bigger rooms (9+ answerers): rank scoring
Everyone who guessed is lined up by error, smallest first, and scored by their place in line.
- First place always gets 100.
- Equal errors share a rank. If two people tie for first, the next person is third — second is skipped.
- The divisor is the number of people who actually guessed. If you don't guess, you're not in the line and score 0 for the round.
Example 1 — 12 answered, 6 got it right
All 12 guess. Two people guessed exactly 6, so they share first. The two who were off by 1 have two people ahead of them, so they're third.
| Guess | Error | Rank | Rank points | Bonus | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 (two people) | 0 | tied 1st | 100 | +50 | 150 |
| 5 or 7 | 1 | tied 3rd | 100 × (1 − 2/12) = 83.3 → 83 | — | 83 |
| 4 or 8 | 2 | tied 5th | 100 × (1 − 4/12) = 66.7 → 67 | — | 67 |
| 3 or 9 | 3 | tied 7th | 100 × (1 − 6/12) = 50 | — | 50 |
| 2 or 10 | 4 | tied 9th | 100 × (1 − 8/12) = 33.3 → 33 | — | 33 |
| 0 or 12 | 6 | tied 11th | 100 × (1 − 10/12) = 16.7 → 17 | — | 17 |
Even last place scores something, as long as you guessed. What matters in rank scoring isn't the size of your error but whether you were closer than everyone else. On a question where the whole room was way off, an error of 4 can still win the round.
Example 2 — 100 players, 37 got it right
All 100 guess: three say 37, five say 36 or 38, ten say 40, and the other 82 all say 60.
| Guess | Error | Rank | Rank points | Bonus | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | 0 | tied 1st | 100 | +50 | 150 |
| 36 or 38 | 1 | tied 4th | 97 | +50 (close enough) | 147 |
| 40 | 3 | tied 9th | 92 | — | 92 |
| 60 | 23 | tied 19th | 82 | — | 82 |
In a 100-person room, being off by 1 counts as exact, so 36 and 38 also get +50 (see "Exact guesses earn +50" below). Notice too that all 82 people with the same error share 19th place and each get 82 points. Ties take the best shared rank, so a guess the whole room got wrong together costs less than you'd think.
Small rooms (8 or fewer answerers): distance scoring
With few players, rank scoring swings too hard. With three people guessing, rank points are 100, 67 and 33 — one person off by one could drop to 33. So when there are 8 or fewer answerers, points depend on how close you were, not where you placed.
With 5 answerers, each person you're off by costs 20 points; with 4 it's 25; with 8 it's 12.5. Other people's guesses don't affect your score at all.
Example 3 — 5 answered, 3 got it right
| Guess | Error | Distance points | Bonus | Total | (For comparison) rank scoring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 0 | 100 | +50 | 150 | 150 |
| 4 | 1 | 100 × (1 − 1/5) = 80 | — | 80 | 80 |
| 2 | 1 | 80 | — | 80 | 80 |
| 5 | 2 | 100 × (1 − 2/5) = 60 | — | 60 | 40 |
| 0 | 3 | 100 × (1 − 3/5) = 40 | — | 40 | 20 |
The last column shows what rank scoring would have given the same guesses. Distance scoring keeps errors of 2 and 3 only 20 points apart, where rank scoring would have sunk last place to 20. That's why small games stay close to the end.
Exact guesses earn +50
If your error is within the margin, 50 points are added to your rank or distance points. The result screen shows "spot on +50", or "close enough +50" when the margin is what got you there.
The margin is 1% of the number of answerers, rounded. In a room of hundreds, hitting one exact number is luck, not skill.
| Answerers | Error that earns +50 |
|---|---|
| 2–49 | 0 (must be exact) |
| 50–149 | 1 or less |
| 150–249 | 2 or less |
| 250–300 | 3 or less |
Weights: double and quadruple points
A round's points can be multiplied. The multiplier applies to your rank or distance points plus the +50 bonus.
- Double-point questions: when the host writes questions, or a player writes one in Players ask, each question can be worth 1× or 2×. Built-in pack questions are all 1×.
- Double points in the last round: when this is on, only the final scored round counts double. Practice rounds don't count.
- Both together — a 2× question landing in the last round — makes it 4×.
The one-shot boost: once per game, a flat +50
If the host turns on the One-shot boost, everyone gets one boost per game. Before confirming a guess, tick Use my boost on this prediction.
- You get an extra 50 points only if your error is exactly 0. A "close enough" guess in a big room doesn't earn the boost bonus.
- Missing costs you nothing, but the boost is used up.
- The boost bonus is never multiplied. It's +50 even in a 4× round.
- It can't be used in a practice round.
Example 4 — two rounds with multipliers and a boost
Sam, Alex, Jordan and Riley play two host-written questions. Double points in the last round and the boost are both on, and question 2 is a 2× question. With 4 answerers this is a small room, so each person off costs 25 points.
| Round | Player | Guess / actual | Error | Base | Multiplier | Boost | Round points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 (1×) | Sam | 2 / 2 | 0 | 100 + 50 | ×1 | — | 150 |
| Alex | 1 / 2 | 1 | 75 | ×1 | — | 75 | |
| Jordan | 3 / 2 | 1 | 75 | ×1 | — | 75 | |
| Riley | 0 / 2 | 2 | 50 | ×1 | — | 50 | |
| Q2 (2× question × last-round 2×) | Sam | 3 / 3 | 0 | 100 + 50 | ×4 | hit +50 | 650 |
| Alex | 3 / 3 | 0 | 100 + 50 | ×4 | — | 600 | |
| Jordan | 2 / 3 | 1 | 75 | ×4 | miss | 300 | |
| Riley | 4 / 3 | 1 | 75 | ×4 | — | 300 |
Final totals: Sam 800, Alex 675, Jordan 375, Riley 350. You can see how one heavily weighted round can outweigh everything before it, and how the boost stays a flat +50 even at 4× — it rewards nailing the number, not the multiplier.
When there are no points
- Practice round: results are shown as usual, but nothing goes into scores or total error.
- No guess: 0 points for that round.
- A spotlight player who doesn't pick: if the spotlight player doesn't choose in time, there's nothing to guess, so the round is skipped with no guessing and no points.
Final ranks and ties
Players are ranked by the sum of their round points. If totals are equal, the one with the lower total error — all your errors added up over the game — ranks higher. Only if both score and total error match is it a tie.
- For a round where you didn't guess, the largest error possible in that round goes on your total. On a question where 6 of 12 got it right, that's 6; where 8 of 10 got it right, it's 8.
- So if two players both finish on 375 with total errors of 2 and 3, the one with 2 is a place higher.
- Only people who took part in at least one round appear in the ranking. A Host only host never does. Players who join mid-game start at zero from the next round.
Knowing these rules changes how you should guess. See tips for guessing well for strategy by room size and question type, or how to play for the flow of a game.