Tradle

Tradle is a daily geography and economics puzzle from the Observatory of Economic Complexity that shows you one country's exports as a treemap and asks you to name the country. Each colored block is a product category, sized by its share of that nation's total exports, so you read the economy like a fingerprint. You have six guesses, and distance and direction clues guide you in after each one.

What is Tradle?

Tradle is the trade-focused entry in the Wordle-inspired family of daily browser puzzles, built and run by the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). Each day it presents the export profile of one mystery country as a treemap: a grid of colored rectangles where every block is a category of goods and its area shows that category's share of the nation's total exports. Your job is to read that economic snapshot and name the country behind it, with no map, flag, or text label to help you.

What sets Tradle apart from most -dle clones is that the puzzle data is not invented for the game. It is drawn from the OEC's real international trade figures, so a chart dominated by a single dark block of crude petroleum, a spread of machinery and vehicles, or a slice of coffee and other agricultural goods reflects how that country actually earns its money. You are not matching letters or colors against a hidden word. You are interpreting a genuine economic fingerprint, which makes the game double as a quiet lesson in who exports what.

Tradle was created by Alexander Simoes, a co-founder and CTO of Datawheel, the firm behind the OEC, and it launched in March 2022 during the wave of Wordle spinoffs. It openly borrows its guessing-and-distance format from Worldle, the country-guessing geography game, but swaps the silhouette of a nation for its export treemap. That combination of real trade data and a familiar daily-guess loop is why it found an audience among teachers, economics and geography fans, and trivia players rather than only word-game regulars.

The feedback loop is what makes the country actually guessable. You get six attempts. After each wrong guess, Tradle tells you the straight-line distance from your guess to the target, an arrow pointing in the correct compass direction, and a proximity percentage that climbs as you get geographically closer. So the treemap suggests a region or economic type, and the distance-and-direction clues let you zero in on the exact nation, much like Worldle does. When you finish, you can share a spoiler-free grid of your results to compare how many tries it took you against friends. A new puzzle appears every day, the same country for everyone, which keeps it a short, shareable daily ritual rather than an endless time sink.

How to play Tradle

1. Open the day's puzzle and study the export treemap, noting which product blocks are largest and what economic type they suggest.
2. Type a country as your first guess based on that export profile, for example a major oil seller or a diversified manufacturing economy.
3. Read the feedback after the guess: the distance to the target, a compass-direction arrow, and a proximity percentage.
4. Use the direction and rising proximity to pick a closer country, narrowing toward the right region.
5. Keep refining your guesses, combining what the exports imply with the geographic clues, until they converge on one nation.
6. Name the correct country within six guesses, then share your spoiler-free result grid if you want to compare scores.

Tips and strategy

• Let the single biggest block anchor you first: a chart dominated by crude or refined petroleum points to very different regions than one led by electronics, vehicles, or textiles.
• Treat a chart ruled by one commodity as a sign of a resource exporter, while a balanced spread of machinery and manufactured goods usually means a larger, diversified economy.
• Watch for telltale niche exports, since cocoa, coffee, specific ores, or natural gas can narrow you to a short list of likely countries fast.
• Spend your first guess to establish a region rather than to win, then use the distance and direction feedback like Worldle clues to home in.
• Pay attention to the proximity percentage between guesses: a big jump tells you that you have crossed into the right neighborhood.
• If exports suggest a region but several neighbors fit, guess a central country in that area so the direction arrow can cleanly point you to the answer.

Good to know

Category

Geography and economics (daily country guess)

Guesses

6 attempts

Resets

Daily, new country each day

Cost

Free to play in a browser

Creator

Alexander Simoes (Datawheel), Observatory of Economic Complexity

Launched

March 2022

Tradle FAQ

Is Tradle free to play?

Yes. Tradle runs free in a web browser on the Observatory of Economic Complexity site, with no purchase or account required to play the daily puzzle.

How many guesses do you get in Tradle?

You get six guesses. After each wrong guess, Tradle shows the distance to the target country, a compass-direction arrow, and a proximity percentage to guide your next try.

When does Tradle reset?

Tradle is a daily game and refreshes once a day, giving everyone the same new mystery country. Like other Wordle-style daily games, a fresh puzzle becomes available each day, so you can come back the next day for a new country.

Who made Tradle and what data does it use?

Tradle was created by Alexander Simoes of Datawheel, the team behind the Observatory of Economic Complexity, and launched in March 2022. The export treemaps use the OEC's real international trade data.

Is Tradle related to Wordle?

It is part of the Wordle-inspired wave of daily guessing games and borrows its distance-and-direction format from Worldle, but instead of letters or a country outline you guess a nation from its export treemap.