Google World Cup minigame is the drug you need

A new Google minigame, nicknamed the Mini Cup by its creators, is taking World Cup fans by surprise. Although simple in nature, the mobile doodle attracts tens of millions of players a day.

How can you play?

The Mini Cup is only available on mobile devices. By going to Google Chrome or the Google App and searching up an upcoming match or searching up “World Cup.” You might see a blue circle with a football inscribed in it on the bottom left corner of your device. Sometimes you may have to scroll down and scroll back up again.

When you click the blue square, you’ll get to a list of games you can play. You can also click left on the Results tab, where you can see how finished matches turned out. You can also click right to the Standings tab to see which nation is first in goals scored.

Translating the Google World Cup minigame to real life results

Google Mini Cup results are surprisingly accurate for its game format. You have to score the most goals with the help of millions around the world. Here are some of the results (excluding draws) that Mini Cup predicted.

• Qatar (33.9 million goals) vs. Ecuador (43.1 million goals)
• England (42.5 million) vs. Iran (14.8 million)
• Senegal (11.3 million) vs. Netherlands (20.4 million)
• France (30.2 million) vs. Australia (8.8 million)
• Spain (67.1 million) vs. Costa Rica (7.9 million)
• Belgium (17.9 million) vs. Canada (11.6 million)
• Switzerland (13 million) vs. Cameroon (9.2 million)

Minicup users missed Argentina (106.4 million) vs. Saudi Arabia (77.8 million) and also failed Germany (40 million) vs. Japan (21.3 million).

Argentina (136 million) has the most goals out of any other nation, followed by Brazil (94 million), Saudi Arabia (93 million), Spain (84 million), and Portugal (68 million). Mexico lies at 10th with 45 million total goals. The United States at 13th has 37 million, but Canada lies below the other CONCACAF powers at 27th with just 12 million goals.

PHOTO: IMAGO / Christian Offenberg