The Addictiveness of the U.S. Census Bracket Game Cannot Be Denied

Obsessive collectors of urban data and prospective Jeopardy! contestants can still drown their bracket-related sorrows elsewhere: The U.S. Census earlier this month released a bracket game of its own pitting 64 cities against each other by population size. Choose wrongly and the government will leave that city out of 2020 census (well, OK not really, but you might be uninvited to your friends' next pub-trivia night).

"Population Bracketology" really stretches the limits of what can be considered a computer game, falling in the thrill-giving department somewhere between The Oregon Trail and those tedious municipal-vehicle simulators that make you want to bang your head against a light pole with boredom. That said, it is an undeniably addictive pastime for anyone who thinks they know the relative size of every major American city. And before anybody points out what a terrible job I did on the above game, it was just a random selection for screenshot purposes, I swear!