ONE CODE PER PIECE
Every mosaic carries a code: two to five letters for the city, then a number. PA_1597 is the 1597th Paris piece. That code does everything: finding it, logging it, comparing it.
Invader's catalogue
Invasion
Since 1996, the French artist Invader has been sticking tile mosaics on walls all over the world. Each one carries a code, is worth points, and can be hunted. Here is the inventory, and what you need to keep your own.
4 457
mosaics listed
237
cities invaded
34
countries
122 380
points in play
SCORE 0
WAVE 1
The 1978 game the artist took everything from. The higher rows are worth more, just like in his catalogue.
Thirty years of invasion
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1996
The first piece
A ceramic tile mosaic appears in a Bastille back street in Paris. The artist nicknames it "the scout". The design is one of the aliens from the arcade game Space Invaders, released in 1978.
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1998
The invasion truly begins
What was a single piece becomes a methodical campaign: waves, maps, one code per mosaic. Paris remains the birthplace and still holds the largest share of the inventory.
-
2014
The hunt becomes a game
The artist releases an app that lets anyone photograph the mosaics they find and score points. Each piece is worth 10 to 100 depending on difficulty. A community of hunters forms, crossing cities for a single piece.
-
2026
Where we stand
We list 4 457 of his mosaics across 237 cities and 34 countries, each with its photo, address, official code, point value and condition. Some are gone from the walls: they stay in the catalogue, and stay tickable.
How the hunt works
POINTS, NOT A LEAGUE TABLE
A piece is worth 10 to 100 points depending on how hard it is to reach. The hundred-pointers are the ones you cross a city for. We relay the value published by the artist; we invent no scale of our own.
PIECES THAT ARE GONE
A wall comes down, a facade is cleaned, a mosaic is torn off. Lost pieces stay listed in grey and drop out of the count of what is left to see, but you can still say you saw them before.
YOUR TURN
Open your log, pick a city, and tick what you have already seen. If you have been hunting for years, your app's list copies over here in one go, by pasting the codes.