1in8B
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About 1in8B
1in8B is a free browser game about the lottery of birth. You are born as one of 8 billion people, in a country drawn by real birth numbers, and live that life year by year.
What 1in8B is
Press “Be born” and a draw decides where your life starts. Each country gets as many chances in it as it has births a year. From there the game plays one life a year at a time, with that country’s real odds for health, school, work and family. The people and events are invented; the chances behind them come from data.
Who makes it
1in8B is made by a small independent team. We built the game, its simulation engine and its design ourselves, and wrote all of its texts.
We write the texts in English and Russian. The other 29 languages are machine-translated. When we or our readers find a mistake in a translation, we fix it.
How the game is made
The game runs on our own simulator. For each of 186 countries it uses public data from the World Bank, the United Nations, WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO and Our World in Data: births and population, life tables, child and maternal mortality, schooling, income and inequality, work, health risks and more, 29 indicators in all. For every value we keep its year and source.
Names, families and particular events are invented by the game; how often things happen follows the data. What exactly is real and what is made up is explained in detail on a separate page.
The game and the website are available in 31 languages.
Why we make it
Where a person is born shapes their chances long before they can do anything about it. Statistics say this clearly, but a table is easy to scroll past. In 1in8B the same numbers arrive one life at a time.
We want to show this calmly and honestly: without drama, without lecturing, and without hiding that many lives in every country turn out long and good. The game simplifies, but it does not make up the odds.
How it stays free
The game is free and needs no account. The website shows ads, and they pay for the work. Your lives are saved only on your device.
What data the ads and analytics use, and how to opt out, is described in the privacy policy. Mobile apps are planned but not out yet.
Independence
1in8B is an independent game. It is not affiliated with other games, apps or websites with similar names, such as 1in8b.life.
Contact
Questions, corrections, press and partnerships: write to support@1in8b.game. More on the contact page.