Words per minute, or WPM, is the measure of a person's typing speed, or the ratio of words typed to minutes elapsed.
WPM will not increase by using a nitro and may even decrease a player's current speed by roughly 1-3 WPM due to how data is transferred when a nitro is inputted and the last packets of the race are registered.
Methodology[]
WPM increases as words are typed, but decreases if a word is mistyped or slowed down. Practice is recommended to mistype words fewer and fewer times.
The formula for WPM is as follows:
(Characters typed / 5) / (seconds typed / 60)
A "word" is defined as five characters, including spaces, meaning that "of it" and "nitro" are both one "word" in WPM calculations. For example, if one types 810 characters in exactly 2 minutes, they typed 162 words (810 divided by 5). 162 words divided by 2 minutes is 81 words per minute, their speed over the time period.
WPM Zones[]
While racing, players are grouped into WPM zones depending on their speed average. If there are no players available in one's WPM zone, bots will join the race.
If the player's speed average is at least 15 WPM, they can use one nitro per race. Otherwise, they cannot use any nitros.
The zones are as follows:
1-10 WPM zone
11-20 WPM zone
21-25 WPM zone
26-30 WPM zone
31-35 WPM zone
36-40 WPM zone - This is the average WPM of most people in the world.
41-45 WPM zone
46-50 WPM zone
51-55 WPM zone
56-60 WPM zone
61-65 WPM zone
66-70 WPM zone
71-80 WPM zone
81-90 WPM zone - Bot loading times speed up from this point on.
91-100 WPM zone
101-110 WPM zone - From this WPM zone up, it's 1 second per bot.
111-120 WPM zone
121-140 WPM zone - This is the first of 3 WPM zones that go by divisions of 20.
141-160 WPM zone
161-180 WPM zone
181-269 WPM zone - Second highest WPM zone, the highest WPM zone that a player ever achieved without cheating.
270+ WPM zone - 100% bots due to no player having this WPM without cheating.
Trivia[]
- The highest WPM anyone has ever obtained without cheating is joshuu with a high speed of 249 WPM.
- Previous high speed records include:
- The highest recorded WPM that was obtained without cheating on any layout other than QWERTY is NoThisIsJohn with a high speed of 200 WPM. John obtained this high speed using the Dvorak keyboard layout, being the first person to do so with this layout. [4]
- The highest verified WPM obtained with the use of only two fingers (referred to as the pecking method) belongs to PenguinTyper, with a high of 167 WPM. The previous two finger high speed belonged to ayeyuhskuh, at 162 WPM. ayeyuhskuh has since switched to using homerow.
- The world's average typing speed is 38-40 WPM.
- The average WPM of a racer is based on their last 10 races; however, a guest racer's average speed is only based on their last race.
- If the WPM of one's previous race is 40 WPM or more above their average WPM before the race, the average WPM becomes the same speed that they finished with in the previous race, thus making the next race in a different WPM zone. This feature was added in 2020 to discourage sandbagging.
- When you get a new high speed in NT, you get a notification and bonus cash/XP at the end of the race.