The questions below are the ones players actually ask. If yours is not here, the how-to-play guide has the full rules, and the about page explains how the charts are made.
The game
What is Extraplot?
Extraplot is a free daily chart game. A real data chart stops at a cut-off year, you draw where the line went next, and then the true line appears with a score out of 1,000 for that chart. Five charts make a day, so a perfect day is 5,000.
Is Extraplot free?
Yes. Extraplot is completely free, needs no account and has no ads. Your scores, streak and settings are stored in your own browser.
Do I need to sign up or install an app?
No. It runs in any modern desktop or mobile browser. There is no sign-up, no email and nothing to install.
How long does a daily set take?
About five minutes for a careful player, and there is no timer. You can leave after one chart and resume later; the game saves your drawing.
When do new charts appear?
Five new charts appear at midnight Eastern Time, every day. Everyone plays the same five charts, so scores are comparable across players and countries.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. The chart is drawn with a finger and the interface is built for small screens. Keyboard controls also work on desktop, and the whole site respects reduced-motion settings.
Can I play old charts?
Yes. Every aired day stays in the archive, free, with the same scoring. Archive runs never affect your daily streak.
What is practice mode?
Practice draws a random set of charts from the season. It is useful for learning a category and never touches your daily total or streak.
What is the season?
The first season is 365 days, starting on 12 November 2026. Each day uses five unique charts from a bank of 1,825 real-data series, and no chart is repeated across the season.
Scoring
How is a chart scored?
The game measures the average gap between your drawn line and the real line across the hidden years, divided by the chart's fixed height. If that mean miss is 1% or less of the height, you score the full 1,000. Between 1% and 31% the score falls linearly, and at 31% or more the chart scores zero.
What is the highest possible score?
1,000 points per chart and 5,000 for a perfect day of five.
Why did I score zero on a chart?
Your average miss was 31% or more of the chart's height — roughly, your line was a third of the chart away from the truth on average. It happens on bold-call charts more than anywhere else.
What are the house lines?
At reveal the game also shows what a flat line (holding the last visible value) and a trend line (carrying the last ten visible years forward) would have scored. They are the two lazy guesses. Beat both on all five charts of a day to earn the House Beater badge.
What do the difficulty labels mean?
Warm-up means the recent trend is on your side. Squint means history helps but bends. Bold call means nobody saw the hidden window coming. The labels are assigned by how easy a chart is to bluff, not by how famous its subject is.
Does the game compare my line year by year?
Yes — it compares your drawn value with the real value for each hidden year, then averages the differences. Direction and overall shape matter more than a single year's wiggle.
Data and accuracy
Where does the chart data come from?
Countries, populations and environmental series come from the World Bank's World Development Indicators and Our World in Data (both CC BY 4.0). Baby names come from US Social Security Administration records (public domain). Search charts use Wikimedia pageview statistics (CC0). Culture, tech and money charts use published industry figures. Every reveal links to the exact source and licence.
Why does a chart disagree with another source?
Data providers revise figures, change definitions and measure different things. Extraplot uses one source per chart and keeps its definitions consistent within a chart. If you think a number is genuinely wrong, email the source link and what you expected.
Why do some name charts end in 2008?
The baby-name dataset used for name charts covers 1880 to 2008. Charts from that source are cut off in the 1990s or 2000s so the hidden window lands inside the data.
Can I suggest a chart?
Yes. Email a topic, the public dataset and a link. Charts need real annual data, a public source and a cut-off with interesting hidden years — we would rather have a few excellent ones than many shaky ones.
Site, sharing and privacy
Is Extraplot affiliated with The New York Times or GuessDash?
No. Extraplot is an independent game. The draw-first chart format was popularised by The New York Times' You Draw It interactives in the 2010s; Extraplot is not affiliated with or endorsed by that newspaper, by GuessDash, or by any data provider.
How do I share my result?
The result screen has a share button that copies a spoiler-free summary of your day — your total and per-chart bands. You can also send a challenge link for a specific day so a friend plays the same charts.
Where is my data stored?
Your scores, streak, badges, settings and resume state are stored in your browser's local storage, under one key. They are never uploaded. There is no account. The only third-party tags are Google Analytics 4 (via Google Tag Manager) and Cloudflare Web Analytics, which count aggregate traffic; neither receives your scores, drawings or profile. See the privacy page for details.
What happens if I clear my browser data?
Your local profile — streak, scores, badges and settings — is removed. The charts and the archive are unaffected, but resume points and history are lost.
How accessible is the game?
The chart has a keyboard mode (arrow keys move the year and set the value), a live readout for screen readers, visible focus states, and a reduced-motion option. Colour is never the only signal in the reveal. If something is not usable for you, email us and we will try to fix it.