Immaculate Grid is a

browser game A browser game is a video game that is played on the internet using a web browser. They are sometimes referred to more specifically by their format, such as Flash games or HTML5 games. They are generally free-to-play and can be either single-pl ...

in which players get nine guesses to fill a 3x3 grid with professional athletes. Originally developed for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, it has since been expanded to each of the other major American professional sports, as well as

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. It uses data from

Sports Reference Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey ...

Gameplay

Each of the grid's three rows and columns corresponds to a professional team, statistical achievement, or award, and players must fill each square by selecting an athlete who meets both criteria. Since players get only one guess per square, each one must be correct for the result to be "immaculate". Correctly guessed players cannot be used elsewhere in the grid. Originally, the player's score was simply the number of correct guesses, but a rarity score was later added to encourage players to think of lesser known answers.

History

The game was developed by Brian Minter, a software developer from Atlanta, who named it after the

immaculate inning The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a ...

, in which a pitcher strikes out three batters on three pitches each. The first grid appeared on April 4, 2023. Originally, the grids were automated, but Minter eventually began to select the categories himself in order to avoid repetition. As of May 2023, the game was primarily played by Minter and his friends, but it began to gain a larger audience when one of them posted it to

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

, and became even more popular after it was shared by the

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account @FoolishBB on June 13.

Sports Reference LLC Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey ...

purchased the game on July 11; the company integrated links to lists of all valid choices for each square on its site Baseball-Reference.com, added more player photos, and announced plans to create separate versions of the game for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

. The football version was launched on July 20, 2023, the (men's) basketball version followed on July 25, and an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

version was launched one day later. A soccer version, called Immaculate Footy, was rolled out on August 18, 2023. A version for women's basketball exists as well.

Reception

As of July 2023, the game averaged 200,000 players each weekday. It is popular among both current and former

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

players.

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.immaculategrid.com/
Immaculate Grid Puts Sports Twist on Wordle Craze
– NBC News 2023 video games Browser games Video games developed in the United States Baseball video games