How old are your ears?

Your ears have an "age" because the highest pitch people can hear drops as they get older. Most teenagers still hear tones near 20,000 Hz; by 30 most people top out around 17,000 Hz and by 50 around 13,000 Hz. The game finds the highest tone you hear in your headphones and shows the typical age of people who hear up to that pitch.

You type your age, set your volume on one comfortable 1,000 Hz tone, then climb a ladder of short beeps that starts at 12,000 Hz and goes up to 20,000 Hz. Tap Heard it or Nothing after each round. When a tone is out of reach, the climb stops and your highest tone becomes your ear age, from "under 18" to "60+", with how many years younger (or older) than you your ears are.

People of the same age spread widely: some hear thousands of hertz higher than others. The game compares your ear age with the typical spread for your real age, from published hearing studies, and shows roughly what share of people your age have older ears than you. It is a rough estimate for fun.

Typically up to about 16,800 Hz at a comfortable volume, against about 19,300 Hz at 20 and 14,900 Hz at 40. These are median values from hearing studies; people of the same age can be several thousand hertz apart.

The "mosquito" tone is a high beep around 17,400 Hz that went viral on TikTok as a sound "only people under 25 can hear". In the studies behind this game, about half of people in their late twenties still hear 17,500 Hz at a comfortable level, so the cut-off is less sharp than the videos say.

No. It is a game for fun. Your headphones, a Bluetooth codec and your volume all change which tones reach your ears, so the score is not a measurement of your hearing. If one ear sounds different from the other, or conversations are getting hard to follow, book a real hearing test with an audiologist.

Video and chat apps compress audio and cut most sound above about 16,000 Hz, so the highest tones in "can you hear this?" clips are often gone before they reach you. The game plays its tones live in your browser, straight to your headphones.

Wired headphones give the truest score. Bluetooth earbuds can cut tones above about 16,000 to 18,000 Hz, and phone or laptop speakers often cannot play the top tones at all. The game asks what you are listening with and keeps it on your result.

It won’t help. Some rounds are silent on purpose, to test you. Tap Heard it only when you hear the beeps: guessing costs hearts and lowers your score, so honest listening gives the youngest ears.

After your result, tap Challenge friends to send a link with your score and your age. Whoever opens it sees your ear age, plays the same game and finds out whose ears are better kept. Share my result makes a story-size picture with your badge and your range bar. The scoreboard on your device ranks the best-kept ears and the youngest ears.

You choose the volume yourself on a 1,000 Hz tone first, at a comfortable level, and every game tone plays at the same or a lower level in short beeps. Keep it comfortable; turning the volume up does not make the game fairer.