Find a license plate with 000. Then 001. Then 002. Keep going until you find 999. It's a game you play on every drive, walk and commute, and it can last for years.
Keep scrolling. This plate counts to 999 by the end of the page.
The rules fit on a license plate.
Your number can be anywhere on the plate. Looking for 347? 8KJ 347 counts. So does 347 WRX.
One tap logs the find, with the time and place, so every number has its own little story.
No skipping ahead. You can't look for 348 until you've found 347. That's what makes 999 mean something.
When a plate has a longer run of digits, any three in a row count. A plate reading 5678 can be your 567 or your 678, and 45678 can be your 456, 567 or 678.
Find it, tap it, save the plates you'll need later, and watch your map fill up. Sound on for the voice-over, or just read along.
Hunting for 116 and just passed 412? Save it with a note like "silver Prius outside the library." When 412 comes up, the app tells you, and you can navigate straight back.
Every find lands on your map. Over months it turns into a picture of where your life actually goes.
Your pace, your best streak, your longest dry spell, and a projected date for finding 999. The long droughts make the finds sweeter.
New in 2.0: you're not hunting alone anymore.
Joining is optional and takes a sign-in. Your game works fully offline without it.
Yes. The whole game is free, with no ads. An optional Supporter upgrade, yearly or one-time, unlocks Favorites and favorite-find notifications and helps keep the game going.
A long time, and that's the point. Some numbers turn up the same day; others make you wait for weeks. At a typical pace, reaching 999 takes years. The app shows your pace and a projected finish date.
To remember where you found each plate and where you saved future ones, so you can see them on the map and navigate back. Location is recorded only when you log or save a plate. If you turn on nearby-saved-plate alerts, the app also checks your location in the background, on your phone only.
Your game lives on your phone. It goes to the cloud only if you sign in for backup, and becomes public only if you join Global, where others see your name and numbers but never your locations on your Player Card. Read the privacy policy.
Yes. Finding, saving and stats all work offline. Maps and Global need a connection.
No. Numbers go in order, always. But you can save plates for later numbers whenever you see them, so the hunt never really stalls.
License Plate Spotter started as a homemade FileMaker database in 2013, built to keep score of a game played on the road. It was played for years, one number at a time, until the day 999 turned up.
The saved-plates feature earned its place during the 2020 lockdown, when parked cars sat in the same spot for weeks and a saved plate would still be there when its number came up.
The app is that same game, rebuilt so anyone can play it.
Free on iPhone and Android.
License Plate Spotter