What to know about Wplace, the social art experiment taking over the global map one pixel at a time

Have you made your way to Wplace just yet? If not, here’s what to know.

First came r/place

If you’re a regular on Reddit, you probably know about r/place. Since 2017, it’s been one of the best social experiments on the internet.

In essence, the experiment, which was made by Wordle creator John Wardle, allowed users to paint or draw on a single pixel. They were provided with a 16-color palette, and it wasn’t long until users were creating things like memes, the American flag, and even the Mona Lisa solely out of these tiny pixels.

After leaving and returning a few times, r/place was shut down for good in 2023 — and it’s fair to say it’s been sorely missed. This is where Wplace comes in.

What is Wplace?

Wplace is like r/place, but with a twist. Like Wardle’s creation, users are invited to paint a single pixel — but the difference is, they’re not drawing on a blank canvas: they’re drawing on a world map.

According to The Verge, the map is made up of four trillion pixels. New users have 30 pixels available to place, and they are able to gain another pixel to replace the one they placed every thirty seconds. This makes it a lot slower than r/place.

Consequently, creations are popping up quite literally all over the world, although, according to IGN, the main things being drawn are video game characters.

One viral Wplace post highlights The Legend of Zelda’s Link on Link Island, while another shows how a small island had been transformed into Snoopy Island.

A Smapton is also blocking the Suez Canal, while memes populate a spot in the Pacific Ocean.

However, despite it racking up 1 million users, the site is still having some teething issues.

Because of the relatively slow art process, a lot of drawings are being left unfinished. In addition to this, social media users are reporting that the site keeps going down, with one claiming it happens “every five minutes.”

Wplace maps from around the world

Brooklyn:

London:

Los Angeles:

Amsterdam:

Tokyo:

Philadelphia:

Paris:

Washington D.C.:

At the time of writing, wplace’s servers seem to be down.

Still, unlike r/place, it seems like wplace is here to stay — so, despite these hiccups, we can expect the world to become a lot more colorful.

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