As many seasoned Sporcle users may be aware, every time something changes in the world, those of us at Sporcle HQ have to assess whether or not published quizzes should be updated. It’s important for our content to remain accurate and current so players can trust the Sporcle published checkmark.
It’s been almost two years since Sporcle reached four billion quiz plays on April 29, 2021. In that time, we’ve seen major developments around the globe across all 15 Sporcle categories. Help us celebrate the march to five billion plays by looking back over what’s happened between the four billionth play and now.
Geography Updates
At the start of 2022, Honduras changed the blue hue on its flag from navy blue to turquoise. A few months later, in May, the Turkish government asked the United Nations to use “Türkiye” to refer to the country moving forward, to which the UN agreed. This request was part of a move on the nation’s part to better reflect Turkish culture and to move away from associations with the “turkey” bird. In January of the following year, the US Department of State also officially began using “Türkiye.”
Where the UN leads, Sporcle tends to follow. Of course, this meant that Türkiye was now a seven-letter country, as opposed to a six-letter country, so quizzes like this one had to be updated.
Another name change we saw in 2022 was that of Kazakhstan’s capital, which reverted from Nur-Sultan (its new name as of 2019) back to Astana in September. To date, Astana has had the most name changes of a capital city in the modern era.
Two country cliques received some new members since four billion: Gabon and Togo joined the British Commonwealth of Nations in 2022, and NATO invited Finland and Sweden to join (so far only the former has acceded). In monetary news, Croatia became the 20th country to adopt the euro as its currency in January 2023.
Politics Updates
The UK had a turbulent year in 2022. It was the second time in British history that there were three prime ministers in one year—the first was 1827—beginning with Boris Johnson and ending with Rishi Sunak, the first Asian and Hindu British prime minister. Queen Elizabeth II, the country’s longest-reigning monarch, passed away in September, leaving her oldest son as successor and leaving Sporcle to update English monarchy quizzes for the first time ever. Until King Charles III acceded to the throne upon his mother’s death, there hadn’t been a King Charles in Britain since the 17th century.
In the US, Juneteenth became the country’s 11th federal holiday in June 2021. Almost exactly a year later, in June 2022, the majority-conservative Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision it made in Roe v. Wade, just days before Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in to become the first Black woman on the Court.
As Sporcle has its headquarters in the US, many of its employees were invested in political happenings at home. However, the news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 cast a shadow over world events, and all of our thoughts continue to be with those in Ukraine.
Pop Culture Updates
In the entertainment industry, James Bond went on his 25th outing in No Time to Die. At the Oscars, we celebrated Billie Eilish’s becoming the first person born in the 21st century to win a golden statuette (for “No Time to Die”), we saw Will Smith slap Chris Rock, and we watched Everything Everywhere All at Once win everything, everywhere, all at once.
In sadder news, we lost both Betty White and Norm Macdonald near the end of 2021, who are no doubt having the best afterlife party ever.
As usual, there were also plenty of corporate logos that needed updating throughout the last couple years, including Sporcle’s own logo! After the website got its big makeover in 2022, the Sporcle logo was changed not once, but twice.
Sports Updates
Individual athletes accomplished some amazing feats since four billion plays. In August 2021, Miguel Cabrera joined the MLB’s 500 home run club, the first player since David Ortiz earned the honor in 2015. And the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors may have won the NBA championships in 2021 and 2022, respectively, but LeBron James was the big name on everybody’s lips when he broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career points record in February 2023.
It fell on Sporcle to update all the Big Four teams quizzes once the new Seattle Kraken NHL team began play in the 2021 season. There were also some pretty significant team name changes that called for updates to these same quizzes and others across the site.
After decades of controversy surrounding sports teams using Indigenous faces and stereotypes as their mascots and in their marketing, three North American teams finally caught on. Edmonton’s CFL team changed its nickname from the Eskimos to the Elks in June 2021. After two seasons as “Washington Football Team,” the NFL franchise previously known as the Redskins chose the new name the Washington Commanders in 2022. The Cleveland Indians of the MLB were also renamed for the 2022 season, choosing the name Guardians.
Sporcle Updates
We can’t believe we’re already approaching five billion plays. All of us at Sporcle appreciate your playing quizzes and creating the content that keeps us in our lane, focused, flourishing. Our staff does an incredible job tracking important happenings around the globe and updating games as soon as possible to make sure you’re always quizzing yourself on the right information. And our community contributes invaluable aid by reporting anything that is incorrect or outdated. So here’s to you, here’s to us, and here’s to five billion!
