Beyond Wordle: The New York Times Games Section, Explained (2024)

Wordlehas officially joinedthe New York Times Games section:The viral word puzzle is now part of a robust portfolio that includesSpelling Bee, Letter Boxed and the legendary New York Times daily crossword.

"If you've followed along with the story of Wordle, you'll know that New York Times Games play a big part in its origins, and so this step feels very natural to me," Worlde creatorJosh Wardle tweeted.

Last year, New York Times Gamesreached 1 million subscribers, and the paper's online games were played more than 500 million times.

Here's everything you need to know about the puzzles in the New York Times Games family, including how to play them.

For more, find out how to start playing Wordle, tips on how to best guess the daily word and how to download Wordle to keep it free forever.

Beyond Wordle: The New York Times Games Section, Explained (1)

Wordle

The Times announced it acquired Wordle at the end of January, for an undisclosed sum in the "low seven figures."

On the off chance you've never played, the immensely popular word game gives you six chances to guess a five-letter word.

If the right letter is in the right spot, it shows up in a green box, while a correct letter in the wrong spot shows up in yellow. A letter that isn't in the word at all shows up gray.

Wordle players have all kinds of strategies -- including starter words, like "ADIEU" and "ROATE," that are heavy on vowels.

And despite complaints, the daily word game has not gotten more difficult since it was purchased by the Times.

"Nothing has changed about the gameplay," Times' communications director Jordan Cohen told CNET in an email. In fact, all the words in Wordle for the next five years were written into a script before the game launched in October 2021. (Spoiler: You can view that script on Medium.)

Spelling Bee

Outside of the daily crossword puzzle, Spelling Bee has the most devout following, with a daily column by Isaac Aronow and more than 600 comments a day on average.

Beyond Wordle: The New York Times Games Section, Explained (2)

It's easy to learn the game but tough to master it: Each puzzle features a seven-cell honeycomb, with six letters arranged around a seventh in the center.

Players simply come up with as many words containing at least four letters as they can. You can reuse letters as often as you want, but each word must contain the center letter.

Words with four letters are worth one point, while longer words receive more. (A "pangram" uses all seven letters at least once. )

Proper nouns aren't recognized, nor are obscure or obscene words -- but exactly what qualifies as obscure is hotly debated through multiple threads.

"Of course, everyone has a different opinion about whether a clue or word is 'fair,' and solvers are not afraid to express that," Wordplay columnist Deb Amlen told CNET. "But don't all families disagree sometimes?"

The Spelling Bee comment section is filled with gripes and brags, peppered between clues to help struggling members of the Hivemind figure out all the possible words and achieve "Queen Bee" status.

Spelling Bee enthusiast Nancy Pfeffer became so enamored with the game's online "family" that sheembarked on a 5,000-mile cross-country road triplast summer to meet some of her fellow players in person.

"What comes to mind when I think about our solvers is 'community,' in the best meaning of the word," Amlen said.

"I can't think of any other newspaper games section that draws such a devoted and enthusiastic audience," she said. "Wordplay commenters have helped and supported each other when personal problems arise. There are local Wordplay groups that meet up in real life to get to know each other. Our games act as a kind of social outlet for like-minded puzzle lovers."

The game launched as a weekly feature in The New York Times Magazine in 2014 and a daily digital edition debuted four years later.

As of August last year, Spelling Bee has been maintained by Sam Ezersky, who constructs the puzzles, decides what words are acceptable and posts the new game at midnight PT (3 a.m. ET).

And, yes, there are people up at 3 a.m. waiting for the new Bee.

Read on: 10 Tips to Winning the New York Times Spelling Bee

The Mini crossword

Beyond Wordle: The New York Times Games Section, Explained (3)

Sometimes you don't have the time, energy or gray matter to work on a full-blown New York Times crossword puzzle. Since 2014, the Times has offered an easier, smaller puzzle, designed by cruciverbalist Joel fa*gliano, now digital puzzle editor at the Times.

The Mini is an amuse-bouche of a crossword, with a simple five-by-five grid Sunday through Friday and a seven-by-seven layout on Saturday. (Occasionally larger "midi" puzzles with 11-by-11 layouts pop up, too.)

Even within that limited space, fa*gliano has devised something of a formula, as he told the Poynter Institute for Media Studies: "Six or seven clues that are pretty easy, two that are trivia and two that are a bit more cryptic."

If you've been too intimidated to try your hand at a Times crossword, a Mini is definitely a good place to start.

Letter Boxed

Launched in 2019,Letter Boxed, like Spelling Bee, relies more on vocabulary than knowledge of trivia: Three letters are featured on each side of a square and players must connect the letters to make words that are at least three letters long. The final letter of one word becomes the first letter of the next.

The catch, though, is that letters on the same side of the "box" can't be used consecutively.

The aim is to use all 12 letters by making as few words as possible. But, unlike a crossword, there's no one route to success. (The Times' answer to yesterday's puzzle, as a result, is just labeled "Our Solution.")

Beyond Wordle: The New York Times Games Section, Explained (4)

Vertex

Beyond Wordle: The New York Times Games Section, Explained (5)

Eschewing words altogether, Vertex is an interactive version of atangram, a Chinese geometric puzzle, that allows users to connect dots to create triangles that ultimately form a larger image.

"At its core, a vertex puzzle is a drawing game with a logic component," according to an articleon the Times website.

The number on a dot indicates how many connections it has to other dots. If you link vertices correctly, the triangle they form will be filled in a specific color.

Tiles

The Times debuted Tiles, its first nonword game, in June 2019. It's a high-concept, artfully designed take on the classic tile game Mahjong solitaire.

Instead of Chinese characters and symbols, though, users try to match squares featuring intricate patterns -- some are inspired by hand-painted Portuguese Azulejo tiles, others by the work of 1970s Op artist Bridget Riley and German color theorist Josef Albers.

Beyond Wordle: The New York Times Games Section, Explained (6)

Players click on matching pairs to make them disappear until they've cleared the entire board. But the variations in the tile patterns are far more subtle than in traditional Chinese mahjong tiles, making the game significantly more difficult.

Unlike crosswords, which appeal to completists, Tiles is aimed at a more meditative player. In fact, there's even a "zen mode" that goes on forever without clearing the board.

"One additional strategy around launching Tiles is to reach users who may not be native English-language speakers," The Times wrote a release announcing the game.

Beyond Wordle: The New York Times Games Section, Explained (7)

The New York Times crossword puzzle

The main draw for Games subscribers is online access to the venerable New York Times crossword puzzle that you can solve on your phone. Not just the current puzzle, but the daily archives going back to November 1993. Subscribers also get access to the new crossword the evening before it appears in print.

The app version of the Times puzzle has an autocheck feature that immediately tells you if you've entered the wrong letter. If you're stuck, you can also have the app "reveal" a square, word or the remainder of the puzzle.

More competitive players can track their solve rate and stats and see how they compare to other players on a leaderboard.

How much is a New York Times Games subscription?

Distinct from the main Times subscription, a New York Times Games digital subscription costs $5 a month or $40 for a year, and includes Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles, Vertex and the daily crossword puzzle.

The Times offers the Mini and the logic puzzle Sudoku for free to nonsubscribers. For now, Wordle will also be free for nonsubscribers.

Read more: Finished Wordle? Try one of these similar games

Beyond Wordle: The New York Times Games Section, Explained (2024)

FAQs

What Games are on the nyt games app? ›

The app is free to download and you can play many games every day with a new puzzle each day for free. You can play Wordle, Mini Crossword, Connections, LetterBoxed, Tiles just to name a few.

How to play Spelling Bee on New York Times? ›

Spelling Bee is a word game that challenges players to construct as many words as they can using pre-selected letters. Each word must include the center letter provided in the puzzle. An editor-curated list of words is selected for each daily puzzle.

How much does NYT pay for crossword? ›

Payment
PuzzlesSizePublished 1 – 2
Monday – Saturday15 x 15$500
Sunday21 x 21$1,500
Jul 19, 2024

What are the rules for the New York Times wordle? ›

Remember the rules

You get six guesses to find the day's five letter word. A yellow square means the letter is in the word, but not in the right spot. A green square means the letter is in the word and in the correct spot. A gray square means the letter is not in the word.

What are the free New York Times games today? ›

New York Times Games
  • The Crossword.
  • Spelling Bee.
  • Wordle.
  • Strands.
  • Connections.
  • Tiles.
  • Letter Boxed.
  • Vertex.

How to play past NYT Games? ›

Navigate to the Archive tab at the bottom of the Games app homepage. Select either The Crossword or The Mini. Select the month and year you would like to see puzzles from. Select the puzzle you would like to play.

What is the hardest day for the nyt spelling bee? ›

First, Spelling Bee doesn't have a difficulty curve over the week, meaning a hive published on Tuesday could be as difficult as one published on Friday. But Sam Ezersky, the puzzle's editor, added that “if there's a very hard puzzle, I'm more likely to offer it on the weekend, but not always.”

What is a pangram word? ›

A pangram, derived from the Greek words 'pan' meaning 'every' and 'gramma' meaning 'letter', is a sentence or phrase that includes every letter of the alphabet at least once. The main purpose of a pangram is to display every letter of the alphabet for fonts, keyboarding, calligraphy, or other design purposes.

What is the genius level of the NYT Spelling Bee? ›

Points Needed for Genius: 125

Genius requires between 18 and 27 words. You need at least a 7-letter word to reach genius. If you don't get the pangram, you need 76% of the total points to reach genius. If you get the pangram, you only need 67% of the remaining points to reach genius.

What is the average salary for a NYT writer? ›

Total salary range for New York Times writer

The estimated total pay range for a writer at New York Times is $78K–$142K per year, which includes base salary and additional pay. The average writer base salary at New York Times is $95K per year.

What is a rebus in crossword? ›

According to The New York Times crosswords editor, Will Shortz, “A 'rebus' in a crossword is anything that gets entered in a square that's not a single letter of the alphabet.” That can mean you have to jam more than one letter into a square or use digits.

What is the acceptance rate for The New York Times crossword puzzles? ›

I got rejected probably 15, 16-plus times — it's about a 3 percent acceptance rate to get published there. They get 200 submissions a week for seven spots. Eventually, last year, they accepted the Monday puzzle, which ran in August. And then, in October, they wrote back, and we worked on this Sunday puzzle together.

What words are not allowed in Wordle? ›

No plurals, no proper nouns, nothing very obscure, and not many conjugated verbs (some ---ED works some don't, it isn't a hard rule). The word list was pretty much hand selected by Palek Shah, the creator's partner. She went through ~13,000 words and picked out the 2309 valid answers.

Are plurals allowed in Wordle? ›

Here's a quick recap of the rules we've discussed in this article: Wordle answers can be plural nouns, but not if they end in S or ES. Wordle answers can be past tense verbs, but not if they end in ED. Plural nouns and past tense words can be used as Wordle guesses even if they aren't valid Wordle answers.

What does "grey" mean in Wordle? ›

When you send a guess along, the color of each letter's box changes. If it turns green, that letter is in the daily word and you've placed it in the right spot. If it turns yellow, the letter is in the word but you have it in the wrong position. If the box turns grey, it means the letter isn't in the word at all.

What is included in a NYT Games subscription? ›

With a New York Times Games subscription, you have access to all of The New York Times Word Games and Logic Puzzles, including:
  • The Crossword - Access to the Daily Crossword puzzles the evening before their release in print.
  • The Mini Crossword.
  • Wordle.
  • Connections.
  • Spelling Bee.
  • Letter Boxed.
  • Tiles.
  • Vertex.

How much does the nyt games app cost? ›

In-App Purchases
TitleDurationPrice
Games - MonthlyMonthly$5.99
Free Starter PackOne-Time$0.00
Introducing the MidiOne-Time$0.00
New York Times Crossword Subscription (Annual)Annual$39.99
6 more rows

Can you play Wordle on nyt app? ›

You can play Wordle in the Games app at, nytimes.com/games/wordle, or in the Play tab of the New York Times News app.

Is Connections on the NYT Games app? ›

You can play Connections in the Games app, at nytimes.com/games/connections, or in the Play tab of the New York Times News app.

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