About the game

What’s the Damage? is a daily price guessing game. Every night at midnight Eastern, five new price tags go up: something everyday, a gadget, a big-ticket buy, something from back then and a wild card. Everyone gets the same five.

Where the prices come from

Every price is read on a real page before it goes in the game: a maker’s own store, government price data, an auction house or a major news outlet. The source is linked under each answer. Prices are list prices in the country named, so the store down the street may charge a little more or less.

Currencies

Pick US, Canadian or Australian dollars, euros or pounds at the top of the game. Prices convert at a daily reference exchange rate, rounded so nobody has to guess to the dollar. Old prices, like a 1967 Big Mac, stay in the US dollars of their year, because converting them would be meaningless.

Scoring

Each item is worth up to 100 points, scored on how many times off you are rather than how many dollars, so a carton of eggs and a dinosaur skeleton count the same. Guessing under is forgiven. Going over counts double. Within 1% is a perfect 100.

Photos

The photos come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences and are credited on every item. We check each one so it doesn’t give the price away.

The small print

The game isn’t affiliated with any brand, store or TV show it mentions. Brand names are used only to say what’s being priced. Read how we handle your data on the privacy page.