Unlike GeoGuessr's Street View where you can pan 360 degrees, zoom into shop signs, and read license plates, CamGuessr gives you a single fixed camera angle showing a live traffic feed. There is no panning, no zooming, and no pausing. The camera shows you what it shows you — and that means an entirely different set of clues matter. Mastering those clues is the difference between random guesses and consistently high scores on the leaderboard.
This guide breaks down every category of clue available in traffic camera feeds, ordered by reliability, and gives you actionable strategies for each game mode.
Master the Art of Camera Clue Reading
Over 135,000 traffic cameras across 50+ countries. One fixed angle per round. Learn to read road markings, signage, vegetation, and camera styles to pinpoint locations from a single live video feed.
PLAY CAMGUESSR NOWThe CamGuessr Clue Hierarchy
Not all clues are created equal. Work through them in this order — the higher on the list, the more reliable the information.
Camera Overlay Text
Many DOT cameras display location text directly on the feed. Highway names, mile markers, city names, and camera IDs are the most reliable clue available. US state DOT cameras—particularly Caltrans (California), NYSDOT (New York), and GDOT (Georgia)—frequently show formats like "I-90 at Exit 5" or "SR-99 @ Main St." European cameras may show kilometer markers. Japanese cameras display location in kanji and romaji. Always scan the edges of the frame first — overlay text is usually positioned in corners or along the top/bottom.
Driving Side
Left-hand traffic immediately narrows the field to roughly 75 countries — primarily the UK, Japan, Australia, India, Thailand, and Indonesia. Right-hand traffic is more common globally but still eliminates those same countries. This single observation cuts your candidate list dramatically. Watch the flow of vehicles for a few seconds to confirm.
Road Infrastructure
Yellow center dividing lines are used almost exclusively in the Americas — the United States, Canada, and most of Latin America. White center lines are the standard in Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Beyond line color, look at road surface quality, lane width, guardrail design, and shoulder markings. Each of these narrows the region further.
Signage and Language
Highway sign colors, shapes, and text language are high-value identifiers. Green rectangular signs with white text = US interstate system. Blue motorway signs = Europe. Kanji characters = Japan. Hangul script = South Korea. Cyrillic text = Russia or Eastern Europe. Even partially visible signs can narrow your guess to a specific country.
Environment and Weather
Vegetation type, terrain features, lighting conditions, and weather patterns provide latitude and season clues. Snow narrows to northern latitudes or high elevations. Palm trees suggest tropical or Mediterranean climates. Harsh sunlight with long shadows indicates lower latitudes. These clues are less precise than infrastructure, but they confirm or eliminate regions identified by other signals.
Environmental Clues
The environment visible in a traffic camera feed tells you more than you might expect. Even without signs or text overlays, vegetation, weather, sun position, and terrain can narrow your guess to a specific region.
Weather Patterns
Snow on the ground narrows location to northern latitudes (northern US states, Canada, Scandinavia, Russia) or high-elevation areas like mountain passes. Heavy rain paired with lush green vegetation suggests tropical or subtropical regions — think Florida, Southeast Asia, or Central America. Fog is most common in coastal areas and river valleys, particularly along the US Pacific coast and in the UK. Clear, harsh sunlight with distinct shadows indicates lower latitudes. Overcast gray skies with moderate temperatures are a hallmark of the Pacific Northwest, the UK, and Northern Europe.
Vegetation and Terrain
Palm trees point to tropical or Mediterranean climates — Florida, Southern California, southern Spain, Southeast Asia, or parts of South America. Dense conifer forests suggest the Pacific Northwest (like Washington), Scandinavia, or Canada. Desert scrub and arid brown landscapes mean the southwestern US, the Middle East, or North Africa. Flat agricultural land stretching to the horizon could be the US Midwest, the Great Plains of Canada, central Europe, or the Argentine Pampas. Deciduous trees with seasonal color changes help confirm temperate zones and can indicate the current season.
Sun Position and Shadows
If shadows are visible, their direction reveals the hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, shadows point north at midday. In the Southern Hemisphere, they point south. Cameras facing south in the Northern Hemisphere show the sun's arc from left to right (east to west). The angle of shadows indicates latitude — near-vertical sun means tropical latitudes, while long shadows even at midday suggest higher latitudes. Combined with the live time of day, sun position can help approximate longitude.
Landscape Features
Mountains visible in the background narrow the region significantly. Coastal cameras may show ocean, harbors, or maritime infrastructure. Urban density, building architecture, and skyline features help distinguish regions — dense high-rises suggest major Asian or North American cities, while lower European urban profiles look distinctly different. Industrial zones, port facilities, and bridge designs all carry regional signatures. Even the style of power lines and utility poles varies between countries.
Practice With Familiar Regions First
Start with regions you know well to build pattern recognition, then expand to unfamiliar areas.
START A GAMEInfrastructure Clues
Road design is not universal. Countries build, paint, and sign their roads differently, and those differences are among the most reliable identifiers in CamGuessr.
Road Markings
Yellow center dividing lines are used almost exclusively in the Americas — the US, Canada, and most of Latin America. White center lines are the standard across Europe, Asia, and Oceania. This single clue splits the world roughly in half. Beyond center lines, look at edge markings: the US uses solid white edge lines, while European countries vary. Dashed vs. solid center line patterns differ by country. Road reflectors (raised pavement markers) also have regional styles — yellow in the US, white or red in Europe.
Sign Styles
US highways use green rectangular signs with white text for directions (following the MUTCD standards) and blue signs for services. European motorways use blue signs with white or yellow text in most countries, though the UK uses green for A-roads and blue for motorways. Japan features green signs with white Japanese and English text. Australian signs are distinctive — green with yellow borders. South Korea uses green signs with Hangul and English. Learning these international road sign color codes is one of the highest-value skills you can develop for CamGuessr.
Road Surface and Width
Wide lanes with pristine asphalt suggest well-funded highway systems — the US interstate system, German Autobahn, or Japanese expressways. Narrower lanes are common across Europe and parts of Asia where roads were built in tighter urban footprints. Concrete road surfaces appear on some US interstates, particularly in the Midwest. Road surface quality roughly correlates with infrastructure spending — Scandinavian and Japanese roads are consistently well-maintained, while conditions vary more widely in Eastern Europe and South America.
Camera Mounting Style
Highway gantry-mounted cameras — spanning the road on an overhead structure — are common in the US and Western Europe for traffic monitoring. Pole-mounted cameras on the roadside are the most universal style worldwide. Building-mounted cameras appear more frequently in dense urban areas, particularly in Asia and South America. The camera housing style itself can be a clue: dome-style housings are common in Asia, while box-style enclosures are more typical of US DOT deployments.
Camera-Specific Clues
Beyond what the camera sees, the camera itself provides information. Feed characteristics, overlay formats, and resolution quality all carry regional signatures.
Look for Overlay Text First
Many traffic cameras display text overlays with precise location data. US state DOT cameras (such as WSDOT in Washington or FDOT in Florida) often show the highway name and cross street (e.g., "I-90 at Exit 5" or "US-101 @ Olive Mill Rd"). European cameras may show kilometer markers or route numbers. Japanese cameras display location in kanji and romaji. This is the single most reliable clue in CamGuessr — always scan all four corners of the frame before analyzing environmental details. Even partial text like a highway number or city abbreviation can be decisive.
Camera Resolution Is a Clue
Camera quality varies significantly by country and funding level. Japan, South Korea, and Scandinavia tend to have the sharpest, highest-resolution feeds with smooth frame rates. Older US state DOT cameras — particularly in less-populated states — may run at lower resolution or reduced frame rates. Eastern European camera quality varies widely within a single country. Very grainy, low-framerate feeds often indicate older infrastructure or bandwidth-limited deployments. High-definition, crisp feeds with smooth video suggest a well-funded, recently upgraded system.
Time of Day Matters
Since CamGuessr uses live feeds, the time you play directly affects what you see. Playing at 2:00 AM EST means North American cameras show nighttime scenes while Asian and European cameras show daytime traffic. Nighttime cameras are harder to read — but highway lighting patterns, city ambient light levels, and the color temperature of streetlights can still help identify regions. Sodium vapor (orange/yellow) lighting is being replaced by LED (white/blue) lighting at different rates in different countries, creating another distinguishing feature.
Region-by-Region Quick Reference
Use this table as a rapid identification checklist during gameplay.
| Region | Key Identifiers |
|---|---|
| United States | Green highway signs, yellow center lines, wide lanes, English text overlays with road names, mile markers |
| Canada | Similar to US but with bilingual (English/French) signage in some provinces, metric speed signs, Trans-Canada highway markers |
| United Kingdom | Left-hand traffic, blue motorway signs, narrow lanes, roundabouts visible, distinctive UK-style road markings |
| Northern Europe | White center lines, well-maintained roads, Scandinavian languages on signs, modern camera systems, moose/elk warning signs |
| Western Europe | White center lines, blue motorway signs, multilingual signage, kilometer markers, dense urban road networks |
| Japan | Left-hand traffic, kanji text overlays, pristine road surfaces, distinctive silver guardrails, high-resolution camera feeds |
| South Korea | Hangul text on signs and overlays, modern infrastructure, green highway signs with Korean and English, high camera quality |
| Australia | Left-hand traffic, wide roads, English signs with metric distances, green signs with distinctive yellow borders |
| South America | Variable road quality, Spanish or Portuguese text, yellow center lines in some countries, mixed infrastructure ages |
For more practice with specific regional cameras, explore feeds in California or New York for the US, Japan for kanji and left-hand traffic, or the United Kingdom for blue motorways—these locations have extensive, high-quality camera networks to study.
Scoring Strategy
Understanding how CamGuessr calculates scores helps you make smarter guesses, especially when you are uncertain.
The Classic mode scoring formula is:
Score = 5,000 x e^(-distance/2,000)
This exponential decay means points drop off quickly with distance but never reach zero. Here is what that translates to in practice:
| Accuracy Level | Approximate Score |
|---|---|
| Right state/region (within ~50 km) | 4,800 - 5,000 points |
| Right country (within ~500 km) | 3,000 - 4,500 points |
| Right continent (within ~2,000 km) | 1,000 - 2,500 points |
| Wrong continent (5,000+ km off) | Under 500 points |
The scoring curve rewards getting the country right more than anything else. The difference between pinpointing the exact city versus being 200 km off within the same country is only a few hundred points. But guessing the wrong continent costs you thousands.
Mode-specific strategies:
- Classic mode: Prioritize identifying the country correctly. Precise city-level accuracy is a bonus, not a requirement. Five rounds of 3,000+ points each beats three perfect scores and two complete misses.
- Streak mode: Consistency is everything — the game ends when any single round scores below 1,000 points. Aim for safe, continent-correct guesses rather than risky precise ones. A score of 1,500 keeps you alive; a gamble that misses ends your run.
- Country mode: Binary scoring (1,000 for correct, 250 for a neighboring country, 0 otherwise) means you need to learn the major groupings. Focus on driving side, road marking color (yellow vs. white center lines), and sign language/style to narrow candidates.
When in Doubt, Guess Central
If you can identify the country but not the specific location, place your pin near the geographic center of that country. This minimizes your maximum possible error distance. For the United States, that is roughly Kansas. For the UK, central England. For Japan, near Nagoya. This strategy typically scores 2,000 - 3,500 points depending on country size — far better than a random guess on the wrong continent.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get good at CamGuessr?
Focus on the clue hierarchy: camera overlay text first, then driving side, road markings, signage, and environmental clues. The biggest skill gains come from learning road marking conventions (yellow center line = Americas, white = Europe/Asia) and highway sign color codes by country. Playing regularly builds pattern recognition for camera styles and infrastructure differences. Start with the region you know best and expand from there.
What clues should I look for in traffic cameras?
Start with any text overlay on the camera feed — many DOT cameras display highway names and cross streets directly. Then check driving side (left or right), road marking colors, sign styles and language, vegetation, weather, and road surface quality. Camera resolution and mounting style can also help narrow the region. Work through clues in order of reliability rather than trying to process everything at once.
Is CamGuessr harder than GeoGuessr?
It is a different challenge. In GeoGuessr, you can pan 360 degrees, zoom into signs, and read shop names — but the images are static and potentially years old. In CamGuessr, you get a single fixed camera angle showing live video. You cannot zoom or pan, but you gain real-time clues like current weather, live traffic density, and actual lighting conditions that static Street View photos cannot provide. Many players find it more immersive because the feed is genuinely live.
What are the easiest countries to guess in CamGuessr?
The United States is often easiest thanks to distinctive green highway signs with English text overlays that frequently display specific road names and intersections. Japan stands out with left-hand traffic, kanji text, and consistently high-quality camera feeds. The United Kingdom combines left-hand traffic with blue motorway signs and a distinctive road style. Australia pairs left-hand traffic with English-language signs and unique yellow-bordered green highway markers. These four countries each have multiple strong identifying features that make them recognizable within seconds.
Put These Tips to the Test
The best way to improve is to play. Load up a round, work through the clue hierarchy, and see how quickly you can identify countries from a single camera angle. With practice, you will start recognizing regions in seconds.
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