About Anthem Arena
Listen to real band recordings of the world's national anthems and say whose they are. Other competitions ask you to find the country on a world map, pick the anthem's official title, guess the year it was adopted, or match titles to countries. Play the whole world or one continent; every recording keeps its source credit.
How to play
- Goal
- Know the national anthems of the world: name the country from its anthem, find it on the map, and know each anthem’s title and the year it was adopted.
- How it ends
- Ear Sprint ends when its 120 seconds run out or on the third mistake; every other competition ends after ten rounds or ten pairs.
- Record
- Most correct answers, then fastest time; Map Pin and Adoption Year keep the most reserve, Matching Table the fastest time with penalties, each with the player’s name.
- Ear Sprint: name the country from eight choices, most from the same part of the world. The 120-second clock runs during recordings and questions, never while one loads. Three wrong answers end the run. Most correct wins; the last correct answer's time breaks ties. Replay restarts the anthem and costs only time.
- Name Search: ten anthems; type the country and pick it from the list. Most correct wins, then faster time; reveals pause the clock.
- Map Pin: ten anthems; tap the country on the world map, then Confirm. Inside the country or within 25 km of its border costs nothing; beyond that every 30 km costs one point from a reserve of 1,000, at most 100 per anthem.
- Anthem Title: the country is shown and its anthem plays; choose its official title from six, each with an English reading.
- Adoption Year: guess the year each anthem was officially adopted from a reserve of 1,000. Each year off costs one point, at most 100 per guess. Highest reserve wins, then faster time.
- Matching Table: match ten anthem titles to their countries. Each wrong pair adds three seconds; fastest adjusted finish wins.
- Shared tunes: the United Kingdom and Liechtenstein, Finland and Estonia, Greece and Cyprus, and Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa sing to the same melody; either country counts when the tune is the clue.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Tap / click | Choose an answer, place the map pin or make a matching pair; Start sound for the first anthem |
| Drag | Move the map pin, or drag either side of the Matching Table onto its partner |
| Type a country | Filter the list in Name Search; Enter takes the only match |
| 1–8 · 1–6 | Choose an Ear Sprint answer (1–8) or an Anthem Title answer (1–6) |
| Arrow keys · Enter | Steer the map pin when the map is focused, move across the matching table; Enter confirms and continues from a reveal |
| Adoption year | Type a year; a number pad supports controllers |
| P · R | Replay the anthem · restart with a new run |
| Standard controller | D-pad moves between controls and steers the map pin, A selects, Up/Down and Left/Right change the year by 1 and 10 |
Tips
- Listen for the shape Many anthems are marches or hymns, but the opening interval and the tempo set them apart: La Marseillaise leaps up a fourth, God Save the King is a slow three-beat hymn.
- Learn the shared melodies Liechtenstein sings to God Save the King, Estonia to Finland's Maamme, Cyprus to Greece's Hymn to Freedom, and Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa share Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.
- Start with a continent Well-known countries plays the 40 most famous; Europe, Africa, Asia & Oceania and the Americas each have their own boards.
Good to know
Recordings are 20-second excerpts from Wikimedia Commons, almost all by the United States Navy Band, each with its own public-domain or Creative Commons licence. Titles and adoption years come from the CIA World Factbook, read twice independently; accents in titles follow Wikidata where its spelling matches the Factbook's. Opening full credits during a question, leaving the tab or restoring an unfinished run makes that attempt practice.
Watch how to play
Questions
Who performs the recordings?
Almost all are the United States Navy Band's public-domain recordings of every national anthem, shared on Wikimedia Commons. Performers, licences and sources are listed under Recording credits after each run, never during one, because a file name would give the country away.
Why do some countries never appear in Anthem Title or Adoption Year?
A title or year plays only where two independent readings of the CIA World Factbook agree, so anthems with a disputed or missing title or date play in the other competitions only.
Why do two countries share one anthem?
They sing to the same tune with their own words. Where the tune is the clue, either answer counts, and they are never offered side by side.
