Crab Counter

Count the crabs. Fast.

How to Play

Count the number of crabs on the screen as fast as possible. Do not count the fish, shrimp, and starfish, those are only there to distract you!
Hit + and − until the counter matches, then hit submit. On a keyboard, you can also use the Up arrow to add, Down arrow to subract, and Enter to submit (the W/S keys also work to add/subtract)
There are 7 levels and your score is the total time it takes to reach the end. A wrong count adds 3 seconds to your total time.

or press Enter to start

What is the Crab Counter Test?

The crab counter test deals a beach full of crabs and asks one thing: how many? You set a counter to your answer and submit, seven levels in a row. Early boards hold still. Later ones crawl, and shrimp, blue fish, and starfish wander in purely to be mistaken for crabs. Your score is your total time across all seven levels; a wrong count costs three seconds and a fresh board. The skill being measured is enumeration — and its shortcut, subitizing, only covers about four items before real counting has to take over.

What's a good score?

RatingScorePercentile
Lightning CounterUnder 55sTop 1%
Excellent55–70sTop 10%
Above Average70–90sTop 30%
Average90–120sTop 50%
Below AverageOver 120sBottom 50%

Frequently asked questions

What is a good crab counter time?

Most players finish between 90 and 120 seconds. Under 90 puts you in the top 30%, under 70 in the top 10%, and under 55 seconds in the top 1%. Accuracy is speed in this game: a wrong count costs three seconds plus the time to count a whole new board, so the fastest players are the careful ones.

What is subitizing?

Up to about four objects, you don't count — you just see the number, instantly and without effort. Psychologists call that subitizing. Beyond four, counting becomes serial and each extra item adds roughly a quarter to a third of a second. Level 1 sits inside the subitizing range, which is why it feels free. Level 7 is far outside it.

How do the distractors make counting harder?

Shrimp, blue fish, and starfish add a filter step to every item: is this a crab or not? The shrimp is the sneaky one, wearing nearly the same pink-red as the crabs. Distractors can appear from level 2 by chance, so you never know whether the next board is clean until you see it.

Why is counting moving crabs so much harder?

Because you have to remember which ones you've already counted, and they won't stay put. That's multiple-object tracking, and most people can track only four or five moving things at once. Players who do well group the board into regions, count one region, fix it in memory, and move on before the crabs reshuffle themselves.