Geocaching has long inspired the adventurous spirit of millions of people worldwide.
It turned an average walk in the park into an exciting game of hide-and-seek. But it’s been over 20+ years since the first geocache was ever hidden.
So the question is…
How popular is geocaching today?
In this blog post, we will dive into the latest geocache statistics to find out if geocaching is still going strong!
From the number of active geocaches worldwide to who participates in the game – these are the latest geocache statistics you need to know.
What Will I Learn?
Think of Geocaching like a real-world, outdoor treasure-hunting game.
Players use the official Geocache app and the GPS on their smartphones to find small and large containers called “geocaches” or “caches”. You get an approximate location of the cache and a clue to help you find it.
The rest is up to you!
Geocaches usually contain items such as a-
Once you find the geocache, you write your name in the logbook and mark it as found on the app. As you move around, you’ll have a complete record of your Geocache journey.
You can also see the latest activity of other Geocache players and even leave comments for individual caches, which adds a simple yet fun social aspect to the game.
Geocache has been operating for over 20+ years.
The game was founded by 3 people – Bryan Roth, Jeremy Irish, and Elias Alvord.
Geocache has had a pretty interesting history in the game’s development – both in the rules and technology!
Here’s the history of geocaching:
– 3 May 2000
The first ever Geocache was hidden near Beavercreek, Oregon, by GPS enthusiast Dave Ulmer. He published the coordinates online and waited to see what would happen.
At that time, Dave called it the “Great American GPS Stash Hunt.”
Within 3 days, two people found his cache and published their findings online.
Geocaching was officially born.
– September 2000
Jeremy Irish officially launched Geocaching.com, a brand-new website for geocaches. At the time of its launch, there were only 75 known geocaches worldwide. Because GPS was a reasonably new technology, only a few people played the game.
But that was about to change quickly…
– October to November 2000
Jeremy Irish, Elias Alvord, and Bryan Roth founded the company Groundspeak Inc. (known as Geocaching HQ) to support the game of geocaching. The Initial revenue to fund the company came from selling 144 Geocaching t-shirts.
From October to November 2000, magazines, newspapers, and media companies such as CNN started to talk about Geocaching, and this is where the game began to take off.
– 2002
Geocaching HQ launched Cache In Trash Out® (CITO). This was a worldwide environmental initiative supported by the fast-growing Geocaching community.
As of today, over 333,000 people have volunteered at more than 16,000 CITO events, and 8,000,000+ litres of rubbish have been collected.
– 31 December 2007
Geochache officially reaches over 500,000 caches hidden around the world.
– 8 March 2010
Geochache officially achieved a huge milestone of over 1 million caches hidden worldwide.
– 26 February 2013
Over 2 million geocaches are officially registered on Geocaching.com worldwide.
– 13 September 2013
American astronaut Rick Mastracchio found the first Geocache in space on the International Space Station. It had been hidden 5 years before, in 2008.
– 9 March 2016
The new official Geocaching app was launched, giving easier access to millions of geocache players worldwide.
– 18 April 2017
Geocaching reaches 3 million active caches hidden worldwide.
– Present Day
Geocaching HQ remains strong, and geocaching is still growing as a popular worldwide game. Geocaching HQ is based in Seattle and has approximately 80 employees.
Geocaching has managed to hold onto its ever-growing user base.
The game is still played by millions of people worldwide today. These are the key geocache statistics you need to know:
As you can see from these geocache statistics…
The geocache game is far from dying!
Millions of people worldwide still play Geocache today and even attend thousands of events every year.
There were 83,720,498 found logs registered on the Geocache application last year. Impressive, right?
That was a significant increase of 16.26% from the 72,012,016 posted in 2021.
Here is a breakdown of the find logs posted by geocachers since 2015:
| Year | Find Logs Posted |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 83,000,000 |
| 2016 | Not recorded |
| 2017 | Not recorded |
| 2018 | 71,399,308 |
| 2019 | 66,913,927 |
| 2020 | 80,457,658 |
| 2021 | 72,012,016 |
| 2022 | 83,720,498 |
These geocache statistics prove that the game is still going strong – and even growing. 2022 has the most logs posted on record since 2015.
What’s more?
The average geocacher found 43 geocaches throughout 2022, and a massive 1,940,875 geocache players found at least one Geocache throughout the year.
That demonstrates the commitment and loyalty millions of people worldwide have to the game.
The date with the most finds throughout the year was 20 August 2022, with 640,264 total finds from the community.
Looking back at historical geocache statistics, there is no discernible trend with this data – but it’s interesting to see how many players there can be on any given day!
What country is Geocache most popular?
These are the top 5 countries in order with the most cache find logs throughout the year:
Germany and the United States take the top spots when it comes to players finding caches.
The total number of new geocaches placed by the community was 386,614.
A big 69,661 geocachers hid their first-ever cache on the Geocache platform. This is almost 3x what it was last year.
Even after over 20+ years, Geocaching is still an incredibly popular game worldwide.
It continues to have a loyal fan base that plays regularly and manages to attract hundreds of thousands of new users every year.
And the truth is, it looks like it will continue for a while! Geocaching has continued to grow, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
What’s next in the evolution of Geocaching?
Geocache has created a new app called Adventure Lab that takes scavenger hunting to the next level. It focuses more on connecting people socially and adds a new twist to the already popular geocaching game!
Want more statistics posts? Take a look at these blogs:
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Great read! It’s fascinating to see how geocaching trends are evolving in 2024. I love seeing the stats and the increase in outdoor activities. It truly feels like there’s a renewed interest in exploring the outdoors! Looking forward to more insights!
I’ve been caching since 2013. I just heard about trackable tattoos. How many are there?
They say on their official blog that more than 700 people have trackable tattoos – See the article here: https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2020/03/trackable-tips-and-tricks/
I’ve been geocaching for a few years now and I’m glad to see that it’s still going strong! I agree with the statistics – I’ve noticed an increase in the number of newbies joining the community. I’ve even had friends and family members join me on hunts and we’ve all had a blast. Thanks for sharing this update, it’s great to know that our hobby is still thriving!
What is in Geocache? I’ve never heard of this. I heard it mentioned on a ‘Leon the Lobster’ video on YouTube. I’m very curious.
Hi Barbara, I explain everything about the game in the blog post, all you have to do is read 🙂
This is the first time I have ever heard of geocaching! I will definitely get the original app and sign up and see what happens next.
Have fun!