Over the past few years, The New York Times’ daily games have snuck into the lives of people all over the world, nestling themselves into their routines. Something about these seemingly dull, yet cutesy word games is incredibly addictive, and many of us have been sucked into a whirlpool of obsession. In these times, with our collective TikTok attention spans, anything that can keep people engaged for longer than fifteen seconds is a positive, and these games have shown to do that.
4. Spelling Bee
Spelling Bee has been around for almost ten years, making it one of the Times’ oldest games. It gives you seven letters, including a center letter that must be used, and the player has to make a word that is four letters or longer. Spelling Bee is not a game for everyone. Some people have an unexplainable talent for coming up with dozens of words out of the same letters, others don’t. The most time-consuming of NYT’s games, Spelling Bee can eat up hours of your day, if you’re creative enough to keep coming up with new words.
3. The Mini Crossword
Everyone knows what a crossword is, and the mini doesn’t bring anything new to the table. However, sometimes the tried and true is just what you want. NYT also has a normal-sized daily crossword, but it’s only available to people with a subscription, which leaves those of us who are trying to get their entertainment for free with the mini. NYT smartly put a timer above the Mini, which adds a controversial level of competitiveness to it. The mini crossword is a breath of normality that serves NYT well.
2. Connections
Connections is the newest member of the NYT game team. Although it hasn’t entirely hit the mainstream yet, it has high potential. Connection gives you 16 words or phrases, and you must make 4 groups of similar words.
The amount of dopamine one gets from winning Connections might be unhealthy, as it quickly becomes a necessity of everyday life. When you submit a word group, Connections hesitates for just a moment – an endless moment, in which the player waits with baited, anticipatory breath – before telling you your fate one of three ways: the dreaded “One away…”, the outright embarrassing word shake, showing you that you have two wrong, or the euphoric pop of either yellow, green, blue, or purple – signifying a correct answer. Connections is a satisfying game that seems like it will continue to rise in popularity.
1. Wordle
Could it really have been any other #1? When Wordle blew up in early 2022, everybody was playing it. For a while, masses of people (myself included) based our mood for the entire day on Wordle’s infuriating green, yellow, and gray boxes. At the time, I certainly believed Wordle would one day fade into utter obscurity, destined for that special place in the afterlife where all world-stopping fads reside, but that hasn’t happened yet; although its playership is declining. One can only wonder what lies in Wordle’s future: will it continue to slowly fade, or will it have a resurgence?
