The New York Times Games (NYT Games) is a collection of casual print and online games published by The New York Times, an American newspaper. Originating with the newspaper's crossword puzzle in 1942, NYT Games was officially established on August 21, 2014, with the addition of the Mini Crossword. Most puzzles of The New York Times Games are published and refreshed daily, mirroring The Times' daily newspaper cadence. Its most popular game is Wordle.
The New York Times Games is part of a concerted effort by the paper to raise its digital subscription as its print-based sales dwindle. Since its launch, NYT Games has reached viral popularity and has become one of the main revenue drivers for The New York Times. As of 2024, NYT Games has over 10 million daily players across all platforms and over one million premium subscribers. According to one member of staff, "the half joke that is repeated internally is that The New York Times is now a gaming company that also happens to offer news."
History 1942–2014: The New York Times Crossword
The New York Times has used video games as part of its journalistic efforts, among the first publications to do so, contributing to an increase in Internet traffic; In the late 1990s and early 2000s, The New York Times began offering its newspaper online, and along with it the crossword puzzles, allowing readers to solve puzzles on their computers. This marked the beginning of a digital expansion that would later include a variety of games beyond crosswords.
2014–2022: Release In 2014, The New York Times officially launched The New York Times Games with the addition of the Mini Crossword. In the same year, The New York Times Magazine introduced Spelling Bee, a word game in which players guess words from a set of letters in a honeycomb and are awarded points for the length of the word and receive extra points if the word is a pangram. The game was proposed by Will Shortz, created by Frank Longo, and has been maintained by Sam Ezersky. In May 2018, Spelling Bee was published on NYTimes.com, furthering its popularity. In February 2019, the Times introduced Letter Boxed, in which players form words from letters placed on the edges of a square box, followed in June 2019 by Tiles, a matching game in which players form sequences of tile pairings, and Vertex, in which players connect vertices to assemble an image.
2022–2024: Acquisition of Wordle In January 2022, The New York Times Company acquired Wordle, a word game developed by Josh Wardle in 2021, at a valuation in the "low-seven figures". The acquisition was proposed by David Perpich, a member of the Sulzberger family who proposed the purchase to Knight over Slack after reading about the game. The Washington Post purportedly considered acquiring Wordle, according to Vanity Fair. At the 2022 Game Developers Conference, Wardle stated that he was overwhelmed by the volume of Wordle facsimiles and overzealous monetization practices in other games. Concerns over The New York Times monetizing Wordle by implementing a paywall mounted; Wordle is a client-side browser game and can be played offline by downloading its webpage. Wordle moved to the Timess servers and website in February. The game was added to the NYT Games application in August, necessitating it be rewritten in the JavaScript library React. In November, The New York Times announced that Tracy Bennett would be Wordles editor.
In March 2023, the NYT Crosswords app was renamed to NYT Games to address the application's other games, including Wordle, Spelling Bee, Tiles, and Sudoku. According to Jonathan Knight, chief executive of The New York Times Games, the Times was concerned over how the application would rank in search results for "crossword". In April, the Times introduced Digits, a number-based game; Digits was shut down in August 2023. In July 2023, The New York Times introduced Connections, in which players identify groups of words that are connected by a common property.
2024–present: Further growth In 2024, NYT Games playerbase grew exponentially. In June 2025, according to official statistics of the previous year shared with The Verge by New York Times spokesperson Jordan Cohen, NYT Games puzzles were played 11.1 billion times, while Wordle, Connections, and Strands were played 5.3 billion, 3.3 billion, and 1.3 billion times, respectively.
In March 2024, The New York Times introduced the beta game Strands, a word game in which players connect letters in a grid to reveal a group of words sharing a common theme. It left the beta stage and became a full game in late June 2024 while also being added to the NYT Games app. In August 2024, it was announced that Vertex would be discontinued at the end of the month. In September 2024, The Athletic, in partnership with The New York Times Games, launched a sports edition of Connections in beta. The next month, Zorse, a phrase guessing game where every puzzle is a mash-up of two phrases, entered beta in Canada. Connections: Sports Edition officially launched on February 9, 2025, to coincide with Super Bowl LIX.
On April 18, 2025, Pips, a logic puzzle in which players place dominoes on a gameboard in order to satisfy certain conditions, entered beta in Canada; On June 10, 2025, NYT Crossplay, a multiplayer word game with gameplay similar to Scrabble and Words with Friends, was launched in beta in New Zealand on iOS. Crossplay is their first standalone app outside the NYT Games app. On August 18, 2025, Pips left beta and was officially launched; the launch made Pips the second logic puzzle besides Sudoku on NYT Games, and its first original logic puzzle. By the end of August 2025, the Mini Crossword was changed from free-to-play to requiring a subscription to play daily, with Tiles and Letter Boxed also moving behind the subscription. Additionally, the Spelling Bee no longer allowed players to play for free to the "Good" or "Solid" levels, instead only allowing a few word plays before requiring a subscription. In September 2025, a Strands archive was introduced.
Crossplay left beta and launched in the United States on January 21, 2026. The following month, a mid-sized variant of the crossword, the Midi was launched as a digital-only puzzle. Midi crosswords were previously available as purchasable packs from 2015–2021, and as a weekly puzzle in the New York Times gameplay newsletter from July 2025 until the daily launch.
List of games NYT Games app & website Crosswords + Name Description Subscription requirement Daily Archives & additional The Daily Crossword The Crossword is a daily crossword puzzle both online and in newspaper, syndicated to more than 300 other newspapers and journals. The puzzle is created by various freelance constructors and has been edited by Will Shortz since 1993. The crosswords are designed to increase in difficulty throughout the week, with the easiest puzzle on Monday and the most difficult on Saturday. The larger Sunday crossword, which appears in The New York Times Magazine, is an icon in American culture; it is typically intended to be as difficult as a Thursday puzzle. Typically, the standard daily crossword is 15 by 15 squares, while the Sunday crossword measures 21 by 21 squares. colspan="2" The Midi Crossword The Midi Crossword (or simply The Midi) is the mid-sized version of the Crossword edited by Ian Livengood, ranging from 9x9 to 11x11. All the puzzles are themed, and can occasionally include two-letter words or repeating answers. As well, once a week the puzzle has a visual effect at the start or end of solving. colspan="2" The Mini Crossword The Mini Crossword (or simply The Mini) is the smaller version of the Crossword edited by Joel Fagliano, which is 5×5 Sunday through Friday and 7×7 on Saturdays, and is significantly easier than the traditional daily puzzle. colspan="2"
Other games + Name Description Subscription requirement Daily Archives & additional Spelling Bee Spelling Bee is a word game in which players are presented with a hexagonal grid of 7 letters arrayed in a honeycomb structure. The player scores points by using the letters to form words consisting of four or more letters. Wordle Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. The game was acquired by The New York Times in January 2022 for an undisclosed seven-figure sum; the game was moved to the Times website in February 2022. In 2024, Wordle was played 5.3 billion times. PipsPips is a logic puzzle in which players place dominoes on a gameboard in order to satisfy certain conditions. It entered beta on April 18, 2025, in Canada, and was officially released on August 18, 2025. Pips is NYT Games' second logic puzzle besides Sudoku, and its first original logic puzzle. StrandsStrands is a word game in which players connect letters in a grid to reveal a group of words sharing a common theme. In 2024, Strands was played 1.3 billion times. Connections Connections is a word puzzle in which the player has four attempts to clear a grid of sixteen squares. They must select four squares at a time that fit under a specific category (e.g., dog, cat, fish, and parrot for the category "Household Pets"). It was released for PC on June 12, 2023, during its beta phase. As of 2023, it was the second most played game published by Times, behind Wordle. In 2024, 3.3 billion Connections games were successfully completed. Letter Boxed Letter Boxed is a word puzzle that requires players to create words using letters around a square. Tiles Tiles is a visual game in which players match identical shapes or backgrounds in every tile. colspan="2" Sudoku The New York Times Games also provides Sudoku in the app and online, with puzzles split into three levels of difficulty and refreshing daily.
Others and betas + Name Description Location Status Connections: Sports Edition Connections: Sports Edition is the sports edition of Connections which requires knowledge of teams, athletes, coaches, records, and trivia across various sports. The game was launched in beta on September 24, 2024, in collaboration with The Athletic, and formally launched on February 9, 2025. With the game's official launch, an optional timer for completing the puzzle was added.A separate soccer-themed version was launched in June 2026 to run concurrent with the 2026 FIFA World Cup, being available for the duration of the World Cup. Because of its popularity, it continued as a daily game from July 20, following the conclusion of the World Cup. The Athletic app & website CrossplayCrossplay is a multiplayer word game with gameplay similar to Scrabble and Words with Friends. It was launched in beta in New Zealand on iOS. Crossplay is the first standalone app from NYT that is not folded into the main NYT Games app. Crossplay exited beta and launched in the United States on January 21, 2026. NYT Crossplay app
The New York Times Magazine variety puzzles
In addition to the primary crossword, the Times publishes a second Sunday puzzle each week of varying types in The New York Times Magazine. Currently, every other week features a rotating selection, including an acrostic (long written by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon); other kinds of crosswords (cryptic "British-style crosswords", puns and anagrams, spiral, diagramless, etc.); word puzzles of other formats (Split Decisions, Marching Bands, etc.); and, more rarely, other types (some authored by Shortz himself—the only puzzles he has created for the Times during his tenure as crossword editor).