How to play

Hear a song. Guess the year it was a UK hit.

You’ll need two devices

• One to run the game: a phone, tablet or laptop.
• One phone to play the music, with Spotify or Apple Music (no subscription needed).

You can play on one device, but it slows the game down as you have to switch between Yearworm and your music app.

Optional

• A Bluetooth speaker. The game is more enjoyable when played through a good speaker.

Setting up

Tap New game and choose:

• Players: 1 to 8, and their names.
• Target: the score needed to win.
• Songs: UK chart hits. Pick UK #1s or UK Top 10, plus any extra song packs on offer.
• Eras: all years, or just the decades you like.
• Difficulty: Easier (the 20 biggest hits of each year) or All tracks.
• Music app: Spotify or Apple Music.

Each turn

1. Hand the music phone to whoever’s turn it is.
2. They scan the QR code on the game screen. The song opens in their music app.
3. Keep your eyes off the music phone — it shows the song title.
4. Listen, then say your guess for the year out loud.
5. Tap Reveal year.
6. Everyone agrees how close it was. Tap the score.

Song won’t play? Tap Try a different one under Reveal year. You get a new song and keep your turn.

You can also use it to be kind. If a song is from long before a player was born, let them swap it. It’s up to you how kind you want to be!

Which year counts?

• The year the song reached its highest UK chart position on its first run in the top 10. A song at number 6 in December 1967 that climbed to number 5 in January 1968 counts as 1968.
• Re-releases don’t count, even if they went higher (a cover by another artist is its own song).
• Song packs from other countries use the year it was a hit there.
• The Christmas special shows the year the song was first released. If it reached the UK chart in a different year, guesses near either year score, because it's Christmas.

The reveal shows how high the song got and when, to settle any arguments.

Scoring

Winning

• First to the target score wins. You set it at the start (10 is a good game).

Other ways to play

• Solo: set players to 1. Pick how many songs, and see your score at the end.
• Just practising: no scores, just songs.

Playing over Zoom or Teams

One person runs the game on a laptop and shares their screen. Then either:

• Everyone scans: each player scans the QR code off their screen and listens on their own phone. Best sound.
• The host plays it: the host taps Play on this device and shares computer sound (Zoom: Share sound; Teams: Include computer sound). Everyone hears it at once, and only the host sees the title.

Make the game full screen so the QR code is big enough to scan.

The UK songs run from 1952 up to April 2026.