Comparison

Doomsday Method | Mental Game vs Day Genius

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Doomsday Method | Mental Game

Master the art of calculating weekdays for any date with this comprehensive educational app. Learn a proven technique, practice with interactive exercises, and track your progress to sharpen your mental arithmetic skills.

Highlights
  • Learn Doomsday Method principles
  • Interactive examples and tips
  • Dedicated training mode
  • Progress tracking and statistics
  • User-friendly interface
Features
Read full description

Someone tells you the date they were born. You tell them it was a Monday. That is a real skill, it takes about a week to learn, and this app teaches it end to end. The Doomsday algorithm — invented by the mathematician John Conway — turns any date into its weekday using arithmetic small enough to finish while someone is still saying the date. No lookup. No phone. No calendar. LEARN 48 lessons across 11 chapters, in three parts 178 checkpoint questions. You answer in your head, then check yourself against the worked reasoning — nothing is graded, and nothing is rushed Interactive calendars, anchor tables and step-by-step walkthroughs inside the lessons themselves Mnemonics that stick: 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, 12/12, and "9-to-5 at the 7-Eleven" Six different ways to work the year offset. Pick the one your head likes, and every worked explanation in the app is rewritten in it Seven Extras: why the method works, Easter and the computus, the Julian calendar, Conway's own shortcuts, the record holders, and full reference tables A cheatsheet with every anchor and every offset on one screen TRAIN 10 drills: weekday numbers, counting in sevens, leap years, century anchors, the year offset, month doomsdays, day counting, reverse dates, Julian dates and Easter Five stars a drill, earned by answering cleanly — right, and inside that drill's target time Nothing cuts you off mid-question, and training never costs you rating PLAY Classic — endless real dates, at your own pace, with no clock at all Daily Challenge — five dates drawn from the day itself, identical for every player on earth, one attempt a day Time Attack — two minutes, as many dates as you can, ten seconds off for every miss Choose your range: 2000–2099, 1800–2199, or the whole Gregorian calendar from 1583 to 2599 YOUR PROGRESS A Doomsday Rating that rises when you are right and quick, and never pays for a guess Accuracy and speed over time, your rating history, and a 12-week activity calendar Game Center leaderboards for today's challenge and the global rating, friends included BUILT PROPERLY No account, no sign-up, no ads Works offline Every number in every lesson is re-derived by a checker that shares no code with the app, so an explanation cannot drift from the answer it gives Analytics are opt-in, pseudonymous and on EU servers. You are asked once, and can change your mind any time in Settings Coming from the old Doomsday Method? Your history is imported and replayed answer by answer, so your chart reaches back and your rating arrives honest Start free. One optional purchase opens the rest — one payment, not a subscription. --- EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Day Genius

Learn to calculate the weekday for any date without a calendar or phone. This app teaches a step-by-step method with interactive drills and games to master the skill. Unlock advanced features with a one-time purchase.

Highlights
  • Step-by-step weekday calculation method
  • Interactive drills and flashcards
  • Two engaging practice games
  • Progress tracking and weak-spot identification
  • Reference tables for calculations
  • Support for historical calendar rules
Features
Read full description

July 20, 1969? Sunday. July 4, 1776? Thursday. Your birthday? Work it out in your head, no calendar, no phone. It looks like a party trick. It's a method, and Day Genius teaches it one small step at a time. HOW IT WORKS Every month has a code. Add it to the day of the month and a code for the year, then take out the sevens. What's left is the weekday. 1. Day numbers — 0 = Sunday through 6 = Saturday 2. Take out the sevens — turn any total into a day number 3. Month codes — twelve values, each with a memory hook 4. Combine & find the weekday — your first real answer 5. Year code — turn any year into its code 6. Leap-year rule — a small fix for January and February 7. Century shift — any century, not just your own 8. Full date — everything together, on real dates Master a step with three drills at 90% or better and the next one opens. The first four steps are free; a one-time purchase, not a subscription, unlocks steps 5–8. THE MONTH CODES YOU ALREADY KNOW Learned month codes as January = 6? Keep them. The Month codes step offers the classic list (January = 0, the default) or the alternate list, every code one lower, with twelve memory hooks of its own. Year codes come matched, and every lesson, check, flashcard, drill, game, Reference table and widget follows your choice. Switch anytime. THREE WAYS TO PRACTICE Check yourself — untimed questions that show the reasoning, let you pick again, and record nothing. Flashcards — a deck for every step. Tap to flip, retire what sticks, and the rest come back around. Full date adds Famous dates: twelve dates from 1776 to 2001, with what happened on the back. Drills — timed and recorded, with no time limit: the path to mastery. DRILLS THAT FIND YOUR WEAK SPOTS Day Genius notices the months, years and centuries you miss or answer slowly, and mixes them back into later drills. Progress shows mastery, streak, speed trend and skill breakdown, plus a one-tap weak-spot drill and an optional daily reminder. TWO GAMES Speed Round — ten random dates against the clock, with a full breakdown afterward. Date Drop — dates fall, and you drag each into its weekday bucket before it lands. Catch them early for bonus points and in a row for combos. CORRECT BACK TO YEAR 1 Day Genius follows the calendar Britain and its colonies actually used. They skipped September 3–13, 1752, and before that every fourth year was a leap year, century years included. The Before 1752 bonus lesson shows how to work out older dates; countries that switched at other times can differ. An independent algorithm cross-checks the engine across thousands of dates. THE REFERENCE Every table behind the method, each opening as you master its step; tables for steps 5–8 also need the unlock. Check any date is open from the first launch: pick a date and it names the weekday. Unlock and master the Year code step, and it shows the full calculation too. Pick the 1900s or the 2000s as your home century, and the tables, examples and drills follow it. WIDGETS Date of the Day hands you a fresh date to solve, Code Cards keeps a code in front of you, and Practice Streak keeps the chain going. The last two fit the Lock Screen too. BUILT TO BE READ AND HEARD VoiceOver support throughout, and Dynamic Type including the accessibility sizes. With VoiceOver or Reduce Motion on, Date Drop switches to a calm, button-based mode: no falling, no dragging. FREE TO START, ONE PURCHASE FOR THE REST The first four steps are free, decks and checks included, and they're enough to find a weekday once you're given the year code. A one-time purchase, not a subscription, unlocks steps 5–8 and their decks, Famous dates included. Both games, the Before 1752 bonus lesson and the rest of the Reference open with it as you master the steps they use. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No ads. No personal data collected. Your progress stays on your device, and purchases are handled by Apple.

Screenshots

Doomsday Method | Mental Game4 screens
Day Genius4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Doomsday Method | Mental Game at none against Day Genius's 1. Doomsday Method | Mental Game also leads on ratings volume (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Day Genius's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly). On price, review sentiment, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Day Genius sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Doomsday Method | Mental Game asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Day Genius holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Doomsday Method | Mental Game ships an update monthly, Day Genius every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 14, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Doomsday Method | Mental Game versus Day Genius: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDoomsday Method | Mental GameDay Genius
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (3 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLeon GrimmeisenCraig Ricks

Customer experience

Doomsday Method | Mental Game

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Day Genius

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Doomsday Method | Mental Game

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Day Genius

One-time1
  • Full Method$3.99

Questions

Is Doomsday Method | Mental Game free?
Doomsday Method | Mental Game is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Day Genius free?
Day Genius is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Doomsday Method | Mental Game or Day Genius?
Day Genius is rated higher. Doomsday Method | Mental Game averages 4.7 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Day Genius averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Doomsday Method | Mental Game or Day Genius have ads?
Neither Doomsday Method | Mental Game nor Day Genius shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Doomsday Method | Mental Game or Day Genius?
Doomsday Method | Mental Game ships an update monthly, and Day Genius every 2 weeks. Most recently, Doomsday Method | Mental Game was updated on October 14, 2026 and Day Genius on October 14, 2026.

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