Numbercade looks like an arcade, but the cabinets are in an order. This page shows the whole route: what each game teaches, world by world, which Common Core standards that content covers, and where your kid should probably start.
The sequence follows how the math itself builds. Order of operations and the structure of expressions come first, because everything downstream is written in that language. Proportional reasoning comes second, because it is the single biggest idea of the middle grades. Equations come third, and they use both. Slope is the capstone that turns equations into pictures. The last three games are parallel branches: geometry, roots and exponents, and probability each lean on games 1 to 3, but not on each other.
We audited the actual lessons and challenges in each game (not the marketing copy) and mapped each world to the Common Core State Standards its content covers. Depth is our honesty column: core means the world teaches and practices the standard's central skill; partial means it covers part of the standard; enrichment means the content goes beyond the grades 4-8 standards (we mark the nearest high school code); review is a boss world that mixes the earlier worlds. Scroll the table sideways on a phone.
| Game | World | Concepts taught | Common Core standard(s) | Grades | Depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Order Up! | 1. Prep Station | Order of operations without parentheses; multiply and divide before add and subtract; left to right within a rank; reordering with the signs attached | 6.EE.A.2c | 5-6 | partial |
| 2. Parentheses Pantry | Grouping symbols; nested parentheses evaluated inside out; whole-number exponents in expressions | 5.OA.A.1, 6.EE.A.1 | 5-6 | core | |
| 3. Tray Service | Distributive property, numeric (6 x 102 in your head) and symbolic (3(x + 4)); factoring out a common factor | 6.EE.A.3, 6.NS.B.4, 7.EE.A.1 | 6-7 | core | |
| 4. Mix and Match | Commutative and associative properties; when swapping breaks (subtraction, division); strategic regrouping for mental math; equivalent expressions | 6.EE.A.3, 6.EE.A.4 | 5-6 | core | |
| 5. The Critic's Table | Boss: mixed review of worlds 1 to 4 | review of the above | 5-6 | review | |
| 2. Fruit Market | 1. Sprout Isle | A fraction as one number on the number line; comparing with benchmarks; equivalent fractions; simplifying; estimation; fractions greater than 1 | 3.NF.A.2, 3.NF.A.3, 4.NF.A.1, 4.NF.A.2 | 3-5 | core |
| 2. Market Bay | Ratio language ("for every"); part-to-part vs part-to-whole; simplifying ratios; unit rate as the value of one | 6.RP.A.1, 6.RP.A.2, 6.RP.A.3b | 6 | core | |
| 3. Ledger Lagoon | Ratio tables; scaling vs the additive trap; unit-rate strategy; cross-multiplication and why it works; testing whether a trade is proportional | 6.RP.A.3a, 7.RP.A.2 | 6-7 | core | |
| 4. Boost Bazaar | Percent as per 100; benchmark percents; percent of a number; percent increase and decrease; the markup-then-discount round trip | 6.RP.A.3c, 7.RP.A.3 | 6-7 | core | |
| 5. Scam Cove | Boss: multistep ratio and percent problems disguised as crooked offers; checking unit rates before you trade | 7.RP.A.3 + review | 7 | core | |
| 3. Equation Pirates | 1. Windmill Village | The unknown as x; one-step add and subtract equations; inverse operations; keeping both sides equal; substituting to check; tape diagrams | 6.EE.B.5, 6.EE.B.7 | 6 | core |
| 2. Orange Town | One-step multiply and divide equations (3x = 21, x/4 = 5); the invisible multiplication sign; comparing strategies | 6.EE.B.7 | 6 | core | |
| 3. Syrup Island | Two-step equations; which operation to undo first; checking solutions | 7.EE.B.4a | 7 | core | |
| 4. Baratie | Variables on both sides; parentheses via the distributive property; multi-step solving | 8.EE.C.7b, 7.EE.B.4a | 7-8 | core | |
| 5. Arlong Park | Boss: test strategies; evaluating expressions by structure instead of solving; cross-multiplying proportions; rereading what the question asks | review + HS A-SSE.A.2 | 7-8 | enrichment | |
| 4. Slope Quest | 1. The Ramp Builder | Slope as rise over run; reading slope from a graph; positive, negative, zero, and undefined slope; comparing steepness | 8.EE.B.5 | 7-8 | partial |
| 2. The Mine Shaft | Slope formula from two points; negative coordinates; finding a missing coordinate from a known slope | 8.EE.B.6, 8.F.B.4 | 8 | partial | |
| 3. The Crystal Bridge | y = mx + b; identifying slope and y-intercept; matching equations to graphs; writing the equation of a line | 8.EE.B.6, 8.F.A.3 | 8 | core | |
| 4. Diamond Summit | Mixed test-style review: slope from points, steepness comparison, slope in context, writing equations | review of worlds 1 to 3 | 8 | review | |
| 5. Nether Fortress | Boss: converting standard form Ax + By = C to slope-intercept form; reading the slope out of standard form | HS A-CED.A.4 (nearest) | 8+ | enrichment | |
| 5. Master Builder | 1. Wool Wrapping | Surface area of rectangular prisms via nets and the formula; cube shortcut; surface area vs volume | 6.G.A.4, 7.G.B.6 | 6-7 | core |
| 2. Statue Scaling | Similar triangles; scale factor; corresponding sides; cross-multiplying to find a missing side | 7.G.A.1, 8.G.A.4 | 7-8 | partial | |
| 3. Angle Anvil | Triangle angle sum; angles on a straight line; corresponding angles in similar triangles; algebraic angle problems | 7.G.B.5, 8.G.A.5 | 7-8 | core | |
| 4. Redstone Grid | Translations, reflections, and 90-degree rotations with coordinates; identifying which transformation maps one shape to another | 8.G.A.3, 8.G.A.1, 8.G.A.2 | 8 | core | |
| 5. The Ender Build | Boss: mixed review of surface area, similarity, angles, and transformations | review of worlds 1 to 4 | 6-8 | review | |
| 6. Crystal Caverns | 1. Torchlight Tunnel | Squaring; square roots of perfect squares; recognizing perfect squares; the root-is-not-halving trap; the area-and-side model | 8.EE.A.2, 6.EE.A.1 | 6-8 | partial |
| 2. Echo Chasm | Estimating irrational square roots by trapping them between perfect squares; placing roots on a number line | 8.NS.A.2 | 8 | core | |
| 3. Geode Grotto | Evaluating powers; the product rule for same-base powers; missing exponents; comparing powers | 6.EE.A.1, 8.EE.A.1 | 6-8 | partial | |
| 4. Crystal Forge | Simplifying radicals (the square root of 8 becomes 2 times the square root of 2); radical equivalence | HS N-RN.A.2 (nearest) | 8+ | enrichment | |
| 5. The Deep Dark | Boss: order of operations with roots and powers; distributing over radical expressions; why the root of a sum is not the sum of the roots | 8.EE.A.2 + 6.EE.A.2c applied | 8 | core | |
| 7. Loot Lab | 1. Spawn Zone | Probability of a simple event as favorable over total; marbles, dice, and spinners; probability as a number from 0 to 1 | 7.SP.C.5, 7.SP.C.7a | 7 | core |
| 2. Trade Plaza | Complements: P(not A) = 1 minus P(A); certain and impossible events | 7.SP.C.5, 7.SP.C.7a | 7 | core | |
| 3. Obby of Independence | Independent compound events by multiplying; coin-and-die combos; draws with replacement; combined-choice sample spaces | 7.SP.C.8a-b; HS S-CP.A.2 | 7-8 | partial | |
| 4. No-Replacement Nexus | Dependent events without replacement ("the bag shrinks"); step-by-step conditional reasoning; with vs without replacement | HS S-CP.A.3/S-CP.B.6 (nearest) | 8+ | enrichment | |
| 5. Tycoon Tower | Boss: mixed review including the sum of two spinners (a true sample-space count) and without-replacement draws | 7.SP.C.8b + review | 7-8 | core |
Rows marked partial or enrichment are deliberate honesty, not gaps we are hiding: where a world covers part of a standard we say which part, and where the games run past grade 8 (simplifying radicals, standard-form conversions, without-replacement probability) we name the nearest high school code instead of stretching a middle school one. The audit notes live in our repo's curriculum map and get updated whenever a game's worlds change.
The arcade has a grade picker that highlights the same recommendations; here they are in words.
Start with Order Up! and Fruit Market. Fruit Market's first isle is fraction foundations on the number line, which meets a fourth grader exactly where the cliff starts, and Order Up! builds the operation-order habits everything else assumes.
Start with Fruit Market (ratios and percents are the heart of grade 6) and Equation Pirates (one-step equations are on the menu this year). Visit Order Up! first if order of operations still wobbles.
Start with Equation Pirates (two-step equations are the grade 7 main event) and add Loot Lab, since probability is the grade 7 topic most schools sprint past. Master Builder and Crystal Caverns are natural next stops.
Start with Slope Quest and Crystal Caverns: slope, linear equations, roots, and exponent rules are the core of grade 8. Jump back to Equation Pirates first if solving equations is the wobble.
What this alignment does and does not claim. The table above describes content coverage: which standards the games' lessons and problems address. It is not a claim that playing Numbercade causes mastery of those standards, and no standards alignment from any company is. Numbercade has not itself been tested in an efficacy study; in the federal ESSA evidence tiers we are Tier 4, Demonstrates a Rationale, and we say so plainly.
What we can show you is the research behind the design choices, mechanic by mechanic, with citations: that lives on our why it works page and on each game's "The Research" screen.
All seven games are free during soft launch. Pick your grade on the arcade page and it will point at the right cabinet.
Play free