The Best New York Times Free to Play Games

There’s a popular inside joke that goes around the New York Times newsroom. The gist of the joke is that the legendary newspaper has become a supplier of games that also delivers the news.  

Challenging games and the New York Times have been linked together since 1942, when the legendary newspaper first launched its now world-renowned crossword puzzle. Today, the New York Times games section is among the most popular areas on the company’s website and app. 

When developing new games at the New York Times, the game must be approachable and easy to learn when it comes to the methods of play. At the same time, it must also be very demanding to solve. Most importantly, gameplay should be an enjoyable experience, to ensure that you’ll want to be coming back to play regularly.

The following games rank among the most popular offered on the New York Times games page. Why not try them when traveling? It might be a good idea to kill time by challenging your brain!

NYT Wordle

Would Wordle have become such a worldwide smash hit had the game’s developers stuck with its original name? Josh Wardle, a Welsh software engineer, created Wordle along with his partner Palak Shah during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both were regular players of the New York Times crossword puzzle and spelling bee. 

Their original creation was known as Mr. Bugs’ Wordy Nugz. Their first prototype was ready to be experimented with by 2014. However, the game wasn’t released to the public until January 2021. By mid-October 2021, the Wordle website was going viral, and the game’s popularity began growing exponentially. A month later, Wardle and Shah sold Wordle to the New York Times for an undisclosed sum, an amount believed to be in the seven-figure range. Estimates are that the game was played more than 5.3 billion times in 2024.

Wordle is a word-based game. Every day, a five-letter word is put forth for that day’s Wordle answer. That word is chosen from among a list of 2,309 five-letter words that are commonplace in the English language. Players begin the game with 30 empty squares and are provided six guesses to come up with the correct answer.

Following each attempt, the letters of the guess will be highlighted in one of three colors – green, yellow, or gray. A green letter means it is in the correct position to spell the word. Yellow-colored letters indicate that the letter is in the word, but is currently located in the wrong position. A gray background indicates that this letter is not part of the word at all. 

The game either concludes when a player correctly solves the puzzle, or after going zero-for-six on attempts at a solution the game is lost. At that point, the day’s word will be revealed to you.

You can download the NYT Wordle app for free for iPhone and Android. Over 5 million people have already done exactly that.

NYT Strands

Among the newest games to be released by the New York Times, Strands was first released in the New York Times game library as a beta launch on March 4, 2024. On June 26, 2024, Strands was added to the New York Times games portfolio permanently. The game is the creation of Juliette Seive, a research editor on the New York Times games team.

Strands challenges your brain. It also requires significant knowledge of language. If you find solving anagrams to be enjoyable, or enjoy playing word-creation games such as Boggle and Scrabble, then Strands is the game for you.

Strands is a single-player word search game. A 6×8 grid of letters is used to uncover words that fit into a common theme. Every day at 12 midnight ET, a new Strands puzzle game is released for the day’s play. 

Strands is a word search puzzle with unique twists. It literally bends the rules of traditional word search games. In traditional word search puzzles, solutions can be found up, down, across, or diagonally on the grid. While playing Strands, letters can be connected vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. It’s even allowable to switch directions in the midst of a word.

There’s a theme to every Strands puzzle. You’ll be given a clue to the theme of the game at the outset of play, along with the total number of words you must find to complete the puzzle. During gameplay, your task is to fill in the entire board to complete the puzzle. No words will overlap, and no letter in the grid will be used more than once. Proper names are not permitted to be theme words. 

Each game includes a challenge word or phrase called the spangram. This is either a word or a two-word phrase that touches across to the two opposite sides of the grid. The keywords in Strands all have a connection to the theme, while the spangram describes exactly what it is that these words share in common. Not all words in a Strands puzzle factor into the theme. Words that do relate to the theme of the puzzle are highlighted in blue once uncovered. After revealing the spangram, it is highlighted in yellow.

NYT Connections

Connections is a daily word puzzle created by the New York Times. It quickly grew to be one of the most popular games carried by the venerable newspaper. Among the daily games offered by the New York Times, Connections is second only to Wordle in terms of popularity. 

When playing Connections, you’re given 16 words. Those words must ultimately be grouped into four categories that have an element of connection. Words will on occasion overlap into multiple categories. You can use any of the words more than once. It’s up to you to assess and determine how the group of words you connect associate.  

The four categories are each identified with a color that determines the level of difficulty for that category. Yellow is the easiest category. Next is green, then blue, with purple being considered the hardest and trickiest group to determine. This is a demanding game that will tax your brain power. But it’s this challenge that makes Connections so enjoyable to play. 

Homophones – words that sound the same, but have different meanings, such as hear and here – are frequently part of the Connections mix, and certainly wordplay is another English language technique that will come to the fore during gameplay. Solving categories will also employ elements such as trivia, word structure, and meaning.

You will be offered four opportunities to correctly connect all of the groups. If you are stumped and can’t complete the Connections puzzle, all of the answers, and the corresponding colors and degrees of difficulty, will be revealed once you’ve used up all of your turns at the game.

NYT Spelling Bee

We’ve all participated in a spelling bee at some point in school and were left to make the walk of shame back to our desks when stumped by a particular word. The New York Times draws upon those memories in its version of the Spelling Bee.

When playing the single-player Spelling Bee, the game begins by presenting a hexagonal grid of seven letters that are arranged to look like a honeycomb. Points are scored by coming up with as many words as you can from those seven letters. Rules state that all words must be at least four letters in length. You can use each letter more than once. However, the letter at the centre of the honeycomb must be included as part of all of the words created. 

All four-letter words count for one point in your overall score. With words longer than four letters, you get one point for each letter in the word. Complete a pangram – using all seven of the letters assigned to you in a word – and you’ll score double points. Spelling Bee creators guarantee that a pangram is possible with every seven-letter puzzle. The letter S is never included in the puzzle because the game’s designers feel it makes it too easy to form plurals of words. Achieve all of the possible words in a single puzzle, and you’ll be awarded the title of Queen Bee.

NYT Mini Crossword

An offshoot of the world-famous New York Times crossword puzzle, the mini crossword is the little puzzle that could… and did become a huge hit. It originally launched in August 2014. The concept was that the mini crossword would encourage players to try crossword gameplay. Many people are too intimidated to try the main New York Times crossword, which is considered to be the toughest crossword puzzle to solve in the world.

The mini crossword is a snack-size option in comparison to its legendary cousin. It only takes 5-10 minutes to solve, perfect for today’s short attention span population. Offered on a 5×5 grid from Sunday to Friday and 7×7 on Saturday. That means words will be no longer than five letters, except on Saturday, when they will be seven letters in length. Similar to the main crossword, players must use the clues given to fill in the squares with the correct words until the entire grid is completed.

Here’s the complete list of NYT games playable daily for free without a subscription:

• Wordle – most popular game
• Mini Crossword
• Spelling Bee (limited free tier until “Solid” rank)
• Connections
• Letter Boxed
• Tiles
• Sudoku
• Strands
• Pips

These titles rotate daily and are available on the NYT Games website and app—no paywall required for most base gameplay. Enjoy your puzzle fix!

Free vs Paid: How NYTimes Games Work

The New York Times offers several of its games completely free, while others require a subscription for full access. Wordle, Connections, Strands, the Mini Crossword, and Tiles are all free to play daily without paying. Games like Spelling Bee, Sudoku, and Letter Boxed give you a free daily puzzle, but to unlock unlimited play and extra features you’ll need a subscription.

Current Subscription Pricing

Right now, the New York Times is running a sale on its Games subscription:

• Annual plan: $18 for the first year (normally $50), then $50 per year after.
• Monthly plan: $2 every four weeks for the first year (normally $6), then $6 every four weeks after.

What You Get With a New York Times Games Paid Subscription?

A Games subscription unlocks unlimited access to the full catalog, including all daily crosswords (mini and classic), Spelling Bee beyond the daily free board, Letter Boxed, Tiles, Sudoku, Pips, and archives of past puzzles. It does not include access to The New York Times news, Cooking, Wirecutter, or The Athletic — those require separate subscriptions.

NYT Games: Free vs Subscription Access

In our opinion, for casual players, the free daily puzzles from the New York Times Games may be enough. But for puzzle lovers who want the full archives and unlimited plays, the subscription at the discounted $18 annual rate is one of the best-value puzzle deals online.

Where do you find hints or “today’s answers”?

Inside each game, tap Help/How to Play for rules and tips. The NYT Games homepage shows today’s puzzles; finished boards reveal solutions. (Note: NYT also posts daily hint/answer write-ups on its site, but you don’t need links—open the game and look for the “today” entry or post-solve reveal.)

Do the games have built-in hints?

It varies. Strands offers a hint after you find three non-theme words (it highlights a theme word path). Sudoku and Mini Crossword include Check/Reveal tools. Connections, Wordle, Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles don’t have traditional hints—use shuffle/check features and in-game instructions.

Can you play unlimited puzzles or past archives?

With the free tier, it’s one new daily board for most titles. With a Games subscription, you get unlimited play and archives across the catalog (including full crosswords). Exception: Wordle doesn’t offer an official archive—today’s puzzle only.

What time do “today’s” puzzles go live, and how do you find them?

Most daily games refresh around 12:00 a.m. (local or U.S. Eastern time, depending on the title). If the reset feels off while traveling, check your device clock/time zone and the game’s Help panel. To play the latest, open the NYT Games app/site and choose the game’s Today tile.