MarketJet Lag: The Game
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Jet Lag: The Game

Jet Lag: The Game is an American travel competition video series by Wendover Productions published on Nebula and YouTube. Created by and starring Sam Denby, Adam Chase, and Ben Doyle, and launched in May 2022, each season features a contest that sends players to achieve a geographical objective in some part of the world, some of which are inspired by playground and board games. Some seasons also feature other content creators as guest competitors, such as Toby Hendy, Michelle Khare, and Tom Scott.

Gameplay
Each season features a game structure adapted to the geographic area and transportation modalities available in its filming location. These games have included requiring the players to visit and claim regions across countries or continents; circumnavigate the globe via air travel; play tag in sections of Europe; race between the northernmost and southernmost points of countries; and compete in games of hide-and-seek across countries, amongst others. Players must often endure randomly assigned restrictions to progress through the game. These restrictions may be in the form of a challenge – requiring the player to perform a certain task before progressing – or a curse – which restricts their travel or adds a distracting element to the game. == Production ==
Production
Jet Lag: The Game was created by Sam Denby, founder of Wendover Productions and chief content officer of streaming platform Nebula, with writers Adam Chase and Ben Doyle, all of whom compete each season. The first season was released on May 25, 2022. They typically release four seasons a year overlapping the planning, recording, and editing of each season with those before and after. Jet Lag format was partially developed during a previous Wendover Productions show, ''Half as Interesting's Crime Spree'', which had Chase and Doyle pursuing Denby as he attempted to break obscure laws in US states. Locations are chosen based on the availability of "strong, frequent, reliable, or semi-reliable, public transportation", according to Denby. Consequently, the most common regions have been Europe, North America, and East Asia. To address the climate impacts of the show's use of air travel, Wendover purchases Gold Standard carbon offsets worth ten times the show's estimated emissions. "We knew from the get go that we would get some criticism for what is clearly somewhat frivolous travel", Denby stated. The players travel without any production crew. Instead the video is recorded by the players themselves, using just handheld or tripod-mounted phones and wearable microphones, an approach that Denby says allows the competitors to focus on content rather than production. == Seasons ==
Seasons
As of January 2026, Jet Lag: The Game has released 16 complete seasons, plus a two-episode special. Season 1: Connect 4 in Helena. The first season premiered on May 25, 2022. Starting at Chicago O'Hare Airport, Denby and guest Brian McManus (host of the YouTube channel Real Engineering) compete against Chase and Doyle. The game area consists of the 22 states of the United States west of the Mississippi River, in a game of geographical Connect 4, with the goal of claiming 4 states in a row on a direct east–west or north–south line. Teams must travel to their target state's capitol building, draw a challenge card at random, then successfully complete it to claim that state. By the end of the game, Chase and Doyle had claimed Colorado, Oregon, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming, whereas Denby and McManus had claimed California, Nevada, and Idaho. Both teams converged at Salt Lake City, Utah, with Chase and Doyle claiming the state, and boarded the same flight to Butte, Montana. From there, the teams traveled to Helena, Montana, with whoever completed their challenge first winning. Denby and McManus drew a card that allowed them to claim the state immediately, thereby connecting four states and winning the game. Season 2: Circumnavigation . The second season premiered on June 29, 2022. Starting and finishing at Denver Union Station in Denver, Colorado, Denby and Joseph Pisenti (host of the YouTube channel RealLifeLore) compete against Chase and Doyle to be the first to circumnavigate the world. To count as a circumnavigation, each team must travel at least and cross all meridians. Teams started with a travel budget and could earn more by completing challenges selected from a deck of cards. Once a team completes a challenge, the same challenge cannot be completed by the opposing team. To encourage onward travel, the second challenge completed within a radius is worth half the stated value, and any subsequent challenge is worth one quarter of its stated value. During the game, the two teams took different routes across the world (Denby and Pisenti via Cancún and Amsterdam; Chase and Doyle via New York City and Milan), but both reached Singapore on the same day. Here, both teams aimed to complete some of the same challenges, with Chase and Doyle succeeding in more of them before Denby and Pisenti were able to do so. Denby and Pisenti were stranded in Singapore after gambling away their budget as a last-ditch plan, while Chase and Doyle were able to finish the journey back to Denver via Sydney, Nadi, and Los Angeles to win the game. Season 3: Tag Eur It in Charleville-Mézières. The third season premiered on September 7, 2022. Starting at the Place Ducale in Charleville-Mézières, France, Denby, Chase, and Doyle play a game of tag. Taking turns being "it", the runner must attempt to reach their destination: Zermatt, Switzerland for Denby; Jersey for Chase; and Borkum, Germany for Doyle. After 45 minutes the other two players begin to pursue the runner with the goal of tagging them. The chasers can track the runner using GPS tracking. The runner must complete challenges drawn randomly from a deck of cards to earn coins, which are then used to purchase transport, with the cost based on time and mode. The runner can veto any challenge (i.e. refuse to complete it) at the cost of a 30-minute penalty, during which they may only move on foot and cannot draw new challenges. They can also purchase power-ups, such as turning their tracker off for 10 minutes. A player wins instantly once they reach their destination. In the event that no player has reached their destination at the end of the third day, the winner is determined by whoever's destination is closest to the current runner. The format involves two teams of two traveling across Australia and completing challenges to make claims to eight regions (all six states and two of the internal territories: the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). Teams are able to deposit virtual money from their budget into the region they currently occupied; whichever team has the highest total deposited in a region claims it. The team with the most regions claimed at the end of four days wins the game. Teams began in Sydney, New South Wales with a budget of for travel expenses and region deposits. They could earn money by completing challenges, most of which consisted of a wager with a multiplier ranging from ×1.5 to ×4.0. Failing to meet the challenge's conditions would lose their stake; successful completion won back their stake, times the multiplier. Additionally, there were challenges in which teams staked a listed percentage of their total current funds against the same percentage of their opponents'; successful completion stole that amount from the opponents. The available challenges for a given region were confirmed upon visiting a notable landmark in that region. Cash infusions of were provided at the start of each day and a bonus of was awarded to the first team to arrive in a region. Early in the game, Denby and Hendy claimed New South Wales in Sydney, Queensland in Gold Coast, and the Australian Capital Territory in Canberra. Meanwhile, Chase and Doyle claimed Tasmania in Hobart, South Australia in Adelaide, Victoria in Melbourne, and the Northern Territory in Alice Springs. Denby and Hendy then took South Australia and Victoria from Chase and Doyle, while Chase and Doyle took Queensland in Brisbane from Denby and Hendy. On the final day, Chase and Doyle planned to fly directly to Canberra to claim the Australian Capital Territory and then quickly travel to Queanbeyan across the border in New South Wales to claim both regions. However, non-stop flights from Brisbane to Canberra were booked out, so they flew to Sydney instead, claiming New South Wales from Denby and Hendy. Incorrectly guessing that Denby and Hendy were flying to Tasmania, Chase and Doyle flew to Melbourne to reclaim Victoria. Denby and Hendy had instead flown to the Gold Coast Airport on the New South Wales–Queensland border, claiming both states in quick succession to win the season by a score of four to three. Season 11: Tag Eur It 3 The eleventh season premiered on August 21, 2024. Denby, Chase, and Doyle repeat the game format from seasons 3 and 7, but with a new starting point – Ferrara, Italy – and final destinations: Denby aiming for Lyon, France; Chase for Bratislava, Slovakia; and Doyle for Capri, Italy. Chase was randomly selected to run first. He made it to Nova Gorica, a Slovenian town on the border with Italy, before the chasers caught up with him. Denby was next in the rotation. After getting to Bassano del Grappa, Denby failed to solve a puzzle box challenge and incurred a time penalty and subsequently chose to attempt to amass as many coins as possible, eventually being tagged in Trento. Doyle's run was largely unsuccessful, narrowly missing a train out of Trento to Verona and only making it back to the starting point of Ferrara. On his second run, Chase managed to evade the chasers twice while being at the same train station as them before he was tagged in Castelfranco Veneto. Using the high coin balance from his first run and some fortuitous train schedules, Denby was able to build a multi-hour gap from the chasers as he efficiently made his way to Switzerland, far into his win region. He chose to travel to Hospental Castle, the location he and Doyle had found Chase hiding in season 9. He was tagged there with less than one hour left in the game and declared the winner. Season 12: Hide + Seek: Japan . The twelfth season premiered on December 4, 2024. In this season Denby, Chase, and Doyle play a modified version of the game format from season 9, competing in Japan. The six-day game included a new selection of seeker questions as well as the addition of a deck of cards for the hider that provide curses and other tools, such as bonuses adding various amounts to the actual time they remained hidden. Starting from Tokyo Station, Doyle went first, hiding in the small town of Yamadera in Yamagata Prefecture. He achieved a total score of 9 hours and 59 minutes. Chase went next and hid near Tobiyama Castle Site Station in Tochigi Prefecture, where he achieved a score of 7 hours and 41 minutes. Denby hid at the obscure Higashi-Narita Station in Narita International Airport, but was found by the seekers who had accidentally taken the train to his exact location instead of to Narita Airport Terminal 1 Station; he achieved a score of 7 hours and 42 minutes. In his second run, Doyle hid near Izu-Kōgen Station in Shizuoka Prefecture; due to the seekers' initial incorrect belief that he could not have reached anywhere south of Itō during his travel time, Doyle achieved a score of 13 hours and 9 minutes. For his second run, Chase hid in Saruhashi in Yamanashi Prefecture. With the seekers choosing to take the relatively slow Minobu Line, Chase achieved a score of 11 hours and 21 minutes. For his second run, Denby initially hid near Kawagoe Station in Saitama Prefecture. As the seekers approached his hiding location 6.5 hours into his run, he played a card allowing him to change his hiding place. He traveled to and was later found near Naka-Urawa Station with a total score of 10 hours and 46 minutes. Doyle's second-run score made him the season's winner. Season 13: Schengen Showdown The thirteenth season premiered on March 5, 2025. Starting in London, United Kingdom, Denby and Tom Scott compete against Chase and Doyle to claim the most countries within the Schengen Area (including the microstates of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City) over the course of six days. Countries are claimed by visiting them. Teams have the option to lock in their claim by completing a country-specific challenge; teams do not know the details of any of the challenges in advance. If they choose not to make an attempt or they fail, the country can be stolen by the opposing team if they visit the country and successfully completing the challenge, which also locks the country for them. The teams must use public transportation and have a budget for flights. At the start of the game, Denby and Scott took a train to Brussels, claiming France as the train passed through it. They subsequently claimed and locked Belgium and went to Maastricht, claiming the Netherlands, but failing its challenge, which required out-of-season flowers due to an oversight. Meanwhile, Chase and Doyle flew to Zurich, claiming Switzerland, and from there took a train to Schaffhausen, claiming Germany along the route. After locking Germany, they then traveled to Saint-Louis, where they completed France's challenge, stealing the country from Denby and Scott. Both teams then traveled to Austria, with Chase and Doyle traveling to Höchst by train while Denby and Scott took a flight from Brussels to Vienna. Although Denby and Scott claimed Austria by landing first, Chase and Doyle were quicker to finish the country's challenge, thereby stealing the country. After Denby and Scott claimed and locked Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia while Chase and Doyle claimed Liechtenstein and locked Switzerland, Chase and Doyle flew to Rome, claiming and locking Italy and Vatican City, while Denby and Scott traveled to Copenhagen and Malmö in quick succession, claiming Denmark and Sweden. However, they failed the challenges of both countries before flying to Helsinki. Chase and Doyle then flew to Amsterdam but were similarly unable to complete the Dutch challenge. Chase and Doyle then traveled to Sweden and Denmark and successfully stole both from Denby and Scott, while Denby and Scott failed to complete Finland's challenge. Denby and Scott decided on a final effort to claim as many unclaimed countries as possible and flew to Vilnius, claiming Lithuania. Meanwhile, Chase and Doyle flew to Sandefjord, before taking the train to Oslo, where they successfully locked Norway. With the score at 10–7 against them, and a snowstorm making it impossible to fly out of Vilnius to make up the difference, Denby and Scott conceded the game at the end of the fifth day. Season 13.5: Hide + Seek NYC was the starting point in season 13.5. A special two-episode "season 13.5" was played in New York City demonstrating the show's Hide and Seek home game, premiering on April 23, 2025. Amy Muller – a writer and producer for the series – joined the three regulars. Unlike the guests in previous seasons, Muller allied with Chase rather than Denby. The game was played in two parts, separated by production of season 13. Starting at Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, Chase and Muller went first and hid near the Forest Hills–71st Avenue subway station in Queens, where they achieved a total time of 4 hours and 2 seconds. Denby and Doyle went second and hid at the Elevated Acre near the Wall Street subway station in Lower Manhattan. While the seekers reached them quicker than in the first round, Denby and Doyle reached a time of 4 hours and 28 minutes after the addition of several time bonus cards, winning the special. Season 14: Snake , Seoul. Season 14 premiered on June 11, 2025. Starting at Yongsan Station, Seoul, Denby, Chase, and Doyle compete in a five-day game based on the video game Snake, across the country of South Korea. The designated "snaker" must attempt to trace the longest possible path along the South Korean rail network, without crossing itself and "crashing". The snaker's progress is saved when they reach a station with multiple choices of onward travel direction, called a "node". The two "blockers" can place curses and roadblocks that disincentivize routes or otherwise hinder snakers. The blockers can also place battle challenges, initiating a head-to-head game when activated; the snaker immediately crashes if they are unsuccessful. The snaker's location is typically hidden from the blockers except when the snaker reaches a node. Once all three players have played one round each as the snaker, the next snaker is chosen randomly from the two most recent blockers, with the player currently in the lead ineligible to be selected. Runs are limited to 18 hours. Doyle went first, tracing a route from Yongsan Station along the Gyeongbu and Janghang lines to Iksan, where he lost a battle challenge to Chase and Denby, scoring a total of . Denby went second, tracing a route from Iksan along the Honam and Gyeongbu HSR lines to Seoul, then the Gyeonggang and Yeongdong lines to Donghae. After deciding to take the Donghae Line south, his run ended when he lost a battle challenge to Chase and Doyle in Yeongdeok, a non-nodal station, meaning he couldn't get the mileage from the segment, finishing with a total score of . Chase went next starting from the nearest node at Seogyeongju. He traced a line along the Jungang line to Seoul, then the Gyeongbu HSR all the way to Busan, clearing every obstacle put in his way by the blockers. Coming up on the end of his 18-hour time limit, Chase returned along the Gyeongbu Line to Dongdaegu Station, crashing and achieving a total score of . Doyle was randomly selected to go again. He traced a line from Dongdaegu along the Donghae, Yeongdong, and Gyeonggang lines, before losing a battle challenge at Yongsan, finishing with a total score of . Having scored the longest line, and with not enough time left for a second run for Denby, Chase was declared the winner of the season. Season 15: Tag Eur It: All Stars outside Zermatt, Switzerland. Season 15 premiered on September 17, 2025. Once again starting in Charleville-Mézières, the season features Denby, Chase, and Doyle repeating the "Tag" format from prior seasons, each teaming up with one of the three guest competitors who have won previously. The pairs are Toby Hendy with Denby, aiming for Jersey; Michelle Khare with Chase, aiming for Zermatt, Switzerland; and Brian McManus with Doyle, aiming for Borkum, Germany. Unlike prior seasons, chaser pairs are free to move and act separately from their fellow chaser pair; the pair that tags the runners first becomes the next turn's runners. Denby and Hendy were randomly selected to go first. They traveled to the town of Laon, where they accumulated coins until drawing a curse that restricted them from earning any more until they backtracked. They retreated to the town of Prunay, where they were tagged by Chase and Khare. From there, Chase and Khare evaded an early catch by Denby and Hendy and traveled to Strasbourg where they quickly amassed a large coin budget, largely thanks to a lucrative curse prohibiting them from using their phones. Meanwhile, Doyle and McManus took a flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Zurich, ending up close behind the runners. However, owing to their large budget, Chase and Khare were able to run without stopping all the way to Zermatt and their target location at the Gornergrat Observatory, winning the season. This marked the first time in the four seasons of Tag that an end destination had been reached. With a day and a half left in the game, the players resumed the game at Gornergrat, with the two remaining teams competing for second place. Chase and Khare's win region became a neutral zone where tags were still allowed but neither team could win while in the zone. The two players were also drafted into the other two teams. Doyle and McManus were the first to reach Chase and Khare at Gornergrat, and were therefore named as the next runners. In turn, Denby and Hendy got first pick of the draft, taking Khare and leaving Doyle and McManus with Chase. After train delays caused Denby, Hendy, and Khare to narrowly miss the runners twice in a row, Doyle, McManus, and Chase ended their run in the village of Mengeringhausen, Germany, while the chasers were in Kassel, both within the runners' win region. With no way for Denby, Hendy, and Khare to get to their win region before the end of the game, they declared Doyle and McManus the runners-up. Season 16: Hide + Seek UK in London was the starting point in season 16. Season 16 premiered on December 17, 2025. Taking place in the United Kingdom, it is a six-day game of hide-and-seek, similar to the format of seasons 9, 12, and 13.5. Season 16 introduces a number of new cards, including "time traps", which the hider may place at any station and which grants them a time bonus if the seekers pass through the station. The size of the bonus increases the longer that it has been on the map prior to the seekers passing through it. Among the new curse cards is the "Curse of the Express Route", which when played prevents the seekers from disembarking their train until 30 minutes have passed or the train reaches its terminus. The time given to the hider to find their hiding location has also been extended to four hours. Similar to season 14, once all three players have played one round each as the hider, the next hider is chosen randomly from the two most recent seekers, with the player currently in the lead ineligible to be selected. Starting from London, Chase went first. Hiding in the North Yorkshire town of Scarborough, he achieved a total score of 12 hours and 28 minutes. Doyle went second and hid in the town of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire. He achieved a total score of 7 hours and 17 minutes. Denby went third, hiding near Milton Keynes Central station in Buckinghamshire. Due to his failure to blur the logo of a Santander bank in a photograph provided to the seekers, they were able to identify his station shortly after they returned to London. As the seekers approached Milton Keynes, Denby used the Curse of the Express Route to force the seekers past the city and all the way to Coventry, triggering a time trap he had previously set in the town of Rugby along the way. In the end, he achieved a total score of 10 hours and 1 minute. With Chase still in the lead, Doyle became the next hider by default. He hid in the town of Kendal in Cumbria. After noticing it was raining in an image Doyle had provided, the seekers used a weather radar map to pinpoint his station early on; he achieved a total score of 6 hours and 11 minutes. Denby then went again. He hid in the town of Dunbar in East Lothian, where he achieved a total score of 6 hours and 25 minutes. Doyle then went for a third time, hiding in the town of Dumfries in Dumfries and Galloway. Although he was able to duplicate the Curse of the Express Route and thus use it twice, he narrowly failed to beat Chase's time, finishing with a total score of 12 hours and 6 minutes. As Chase's score from the first run remained the highest, he was declared the winner of the season. Season 17: Taiwan: Rail Rush in Taipei. Season 17 premiered on March 18, 2026, and took place in Taiwan. Michael Downie, host of the YouTube channel DownieLive, was the guest competitor, allied with Denby. Starting in Taipei, the goal of the game is to claim the most stations of Taiwan's long-distance train network over the course of five days. Similar to season 10, teams can claim stations by placing chips while at the station; whichever team has the highest total deposited on a station claims it. Teams can only travel to a station if they have sufficient budget to claim that station and cannot control a station by a margin greater than five chips. Several challenges are placed around the country, which teams can complete to earn additional chips, with additional challenges becoming available after the completion of each challenge. The reward for completing a challenge increases for every day that that challenge isn't completed, or if one of the teams fails the challenge. == Additional content ==
Additional content
The Jet Lag crew produces additional series-related content exclusively available to Nebula subscribers. Two companion videos titled The Layover were released after seasons 3 and 4; these transitioned into an audio podcast, which started concurrently with season 5 of the series. These serve primarily to discuss game design and production details from a behind-the-scenes perspective. Videos containing outtakes have been released on Nebula since season 8. Following season 12, the company produced a set of materials for viewers to play the game themselves. Jet Lag: The Game Hide and Seek, including a deck of the game's cards, dice, rules, and a notepad, became available for purchase in November 2024. A metric version became available for purchase in April 2025, and an expansion pack became available for purchase in November 2025. Its rules are largely the same as those used in seasons 12 and 16 of the show, with some modifications allowing for play in different sizes of geographical area, ranging from small cities to international. In September 2025, the three principal players and Matt Krol of Extra History released a promotional video for Magic: The Gathering, playing a version of the collectible card game across New York City. == Reception ==
Reception
In September 2023, the show surpassed one million hours streamed on Nebula. the channel has reached over 1 million subscribers and over 133 million views on YouTube, with many individual episodes exceeding a million views. On July 28, 2025, Jet Lag was the subject of an episode of the public radio program The World. Jet Lag was also mentioned on the February 2, 2024, episode of the NPR podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, as the show that made host Stephen Thompson happy that week. Awards == Notes ==
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