All NYT games
The New York Times runs the best-known collection of daily games, with Wordle, Connections, Strands, Spelling Bee and the Crossword all under one roof. Some are free for everyone every day, some let you play today's puzzle for free but keep extras for subscribers, and a few need an NYT Games subscription to play at all.
Below is every daily NYT game listed on dailyfika, with what you do in it, what it costs and when the next puzzle appears. Tap Play to open the game on the New York Times site.
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Find the hidden five-letter word in six tries.
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Sort sixteen words into four hidden groups of four.
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Find the themed words hidden in a grid of letters.
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Make as many words as you can from seven letters.
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A tiny daily crossword you can finish in a minute or two.
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The famous daily crossword, easiest on Monday and toughest on Saturday.
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Fit dominoes into a board so every region's rule is met.
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Use all twelve letters around a square in as few words as possible.
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The classic nine-by-nine number puzzle, in three daily difficulties.
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Tiles Subscription
Clear a board of patterned tiles by matching their designs.
Which NYT games are free?
Free every day: Pips.
Today's puzzle is free, extras need a subscription: Wordle, Connections, Strands, Spelling Bee and Sudoku.
Subscription needed: The Mini Crossword, The Crossword, Letter Boxed and Tiles.
When do NYT games reset?
Midnight in your own time zone: Wordle, Connections, Strands and Pips.
3 a.m. New York time: Spelling Bee and Letter Boxed.
10 p.m. New York time the evening before (6 p.m. on Saturday for Sunday's puzzle): The Mini Crossword.
10 p.m. New York time the evening before (6 p.m. for the Sunday and Monday puzzles): The Crossword.
The evening before, at 10 p.m. or 6 p.m. New York time depending on the day: Sudoku.
Midnight New York time: Tiles.
Good to know
Connections: Sports Edition is made by The Athletic, which is owned by The New York Times. It's listed with the trivia games.
Not listed here: Crossplay, the NYT's two-player word game, which lives in its own app and isn't a once-a-day puzzle. Subscribers also get extra puzzles that aren't listed separately here.
Where to start
- New to NYT games? Begin with Wordle, then add Connections. Both are free, both take a few minutes, and they're the two that everyone talks about.
- Not a subscriber? Wordle, Connections, Strands and Pips are free in full every day. That's a good daily set on its own.
- Want something calm? Strands has no timer and no way to lose.
- Wondering what a subscription adds? Mainly the crosswords: The Mini Crossword and The Crossword. It also opens Letter Boxed, Tiles, the full Spelling Bee and the archives of past puzzles. If you only play Wordle and Connections, you can do without it.
Compare at a glance
| Game | Type | Typical time | Difficulty | Price |
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| The Mini Crossword | Crosswords | 1–3 min | Easy | Subscription |
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| Wordle | Word | 2–5 min | Easy–medium | Free daily puzzle |
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| Connections | Word | 3–8 min | Medium | Free daily puzzle |
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| Tiles | Logic & numbers | 3–8 min | Easy | Subscription |
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| Pips | Logic & numbers | 2–10 min | Easy to hard | Free |
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| Strands | Word | 5–10 min | Easy–medium | Free daily puzzle |
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| Letter Boxed | Word | 5–15 min | Medium | Subscription |
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| Sudoku | Logic & numbers | 5–30 min | Easy to hard | Free with limits |
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| Spelling Bee | Word | 10–30 min | Medium | Free with limits |
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| The Crossword | Crosswords | 10 min – 1 hour+ | Easy Monday → hard Saturday | Subscription |
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Times and difficulty are dailyfika's own estimates for a typical day, not official figures.
The NYT games by type
Word games
Wordle is the quick five-letter guess. Connections is about spotting hidden groups, and Strands is a themed word search. Spelling Bee and Letter Boxed are slower games that you return to during the day.
Crosswords
The Mini Crossword takes a minute or two. The Crossword is the famous full-size puzzle, which gets harder from Monday to Saturday. Both need a subscription.
Logic and numbers
Pips is a domino puzzle with three levels a day. Sudoku is the classic number grid, and Tiles is a relaxing pattern-matching game.
More to explore
Looking for free games in the same spirit? Try Quordle after Wordle, Blossom instead of Spelling Bee and The Atlantic Crossword instead of the Mini. For more quick logic puzzles, see the LinkedIn games.
