PurposeGames is a quiz-making site: members build image quizzes (click the labelled spot on a picture), multiple-choice, type-the-answer, shape and slide quizzes, and everyone else plays them. Logged-in players earn points and badges, and teachers can make a group, add games to playlists and run tournaments. Many games also link to a printable worksheet.
That model is excellent for subjects nobody else covers — most of PurposeGames' busiest searches are anatomy (bones, the heart, cranial nerves) and maths (the unit circle). For geography it has a weakness: there are many user-made versions of the same map, quality varies, and finding the good one takes time. If geography is what you need, a curated set where each map exists once and is kept accurate is quicker.
This page covers the geography quizzes people most often look for on PurposeGames, the free equivalent for each, and where PurposeGames is still the better tool.
The geography searches, matched
These are the geography topics people search for together with "PurposeGames", roughly in order of search volume.
Spanish-speaking countries
The most searched geography topic on PurposeGames. Three ways to practise it here:
- Spanish-Speaking Countries Map Quiz — find all 20 countries where Spanish is an official language, on the map. Every country is asked each round, from Mexico to Equatorial Guinea, the only one in Africa.
- Spanish-Speaking Capitals — the capital of each of the 20.
- Spanish-speaking countries table — the reference list, useful as the answer key.
The 20 by region, which is the easiest way to learn them:
- Mexico and Central America (7): Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama. Belize is the odd one out — its official language is English.
- Caribbean (2): Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Puerto Rico is Spanish-speaking but a US territory, so it is not on the list of countries.
- South America (9): Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay. Brazil speaks Portuguese, and Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are not Spanish-speaking either.
- Europe (1): Spain — the one people forget because they are thinking of the Americas.
- Africa (1): Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony and the usual final miss.
The 50 states
- US States by Shape — click each state on the US map as it is named.
- Name All 50 US States — type them from memory in five minutes.
- 50 States Matching Game — pair states with their capitals.
US regions, including the Southeast
- Southeast States and Capitals — the 12 Southeast states and their capitals, including the big-city traps (Charlotte is not the capital of North Carolina; New Orleans is not the capital of Louisiana).
- Region map quizzes for the South (all 16 Census-region states), Northeast, Midwest and West.
Note the two definitions: "Southeast" as taught in many US classrooms is 12 states, while the Census Bureau's South region is 16 and includes Texas, Oklahoma, Delaware and Maryland. Check which one your class uses.
Europe and Africa
- Europe Map Quiz and Africa Map Quiz — click-the-country maps zoomed to the continent.
- European Countries and African Countries — type every country against the clock.
Continents
Click the Continent for the map, and the Continents and Oceans Quiz for which continent each country, sea or feature belongs to.
Replacing "create your own quiz"
The quiz builder is the closest equivalent, but it is deliberately simpler. You choose the question type (country to capital, country to flag, or flag to country), the region (the whole world or one continent) and 5 to 30 questions, and it builds the quiz instantly. Nothing is published, so there is nothing to moderate and no account.
What it cannot do is label your own image. If you need students to click the parts of a custom diagram or a map you drew, PurposeGames' image quiz is still the right tool.
Replacing groups and tournaments
Classroom mode lets a teacher host a live game that students join from their own devices with a code, no accounts needed. It is built for a lesson starter or end-of-unit review rather than a season-long points league, so if you rely on PurposeGames tournaments across a term, keep using them.
For worksheets, the printables page makes numbered blank maps and country, capital and flag sheets, each with an optional answer key. The teachers page collects the classroom material in one place.
Where PurposeGames is still better
- Non-geography subjects. Anatomy, science and maths quizzes are its strength, and there is nothing comparable here.
- Custom image quizzes. Labelling your own picture is unique to its format.
- Points, badges and long-running competitions for students who are motivated by them.
Getting more out of map practice, wherever you play
- Learn a region, not a list. Twelve Southeast states make one picture; fifty states in alphabetical order are fifty facts.
- Test in both directions. Name to place, then place to name. A typing quiz such as Name All 50 US States shows the gaps a click quiz hides.
- Stop at two clean runs. Then move on and come back in a week.