Although The New York Times has been a well-known newspaper since 1851, its popularity among younger generations has spiked in the last couple of years. There are the classic newspaper games–crosswords, sudoku and word finds, but NYT has begun to create new games that have captured the attention of millions. Games like Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections are just a few of the many that come to mind.
The first game that seemed to intrigue the public was Wordle, released in Oct. 2021. The player is given six chances to guess a random five-letter word and is notified as they guess the correct letters. By Jan. 2022, there were over 300 thousand daily players, and that number is constantly rising. Because of these original followers, other games like the Mini, Spelling Bee and Tiles grew in popularity. One of the most played games as of now is Connections, which was released in July 2023. Connections consist of 16 words that comprise four groups of four connected words, and each group is ranked at a different difficulty level.
OHS senior Ava Kleeberger said, “I used to do the Wordle a lot, and that is how I discovered the other games, like Connections, which is my favorite.”
Many people play these games not only because they are quick and easy, but they test the players’ knowledge and ability to use hints to solve each puzzle. They are the type of activity that gets played once and hooks the player to do it again and again every day. Additionally, The New York Times does not require players to make a subscription to play most games, so many more people have automatic access.
Because millions worldwide now keep up with The New York Times and the games it offers, it was no surprise when the new game Strands became just as popular within days of its release earlier this month on Mar. 4. It is essentially a word find where all the words relate to a given category or phrase.
OHS junior Izzy Muir said, “I just started playing Strands a couple of days ago. I can’t do anything without hints, so I just find random words.”
There is already a sizable collection of games for anyone to partake in, but The New York Times will continue to release more and more as the years go on, so make sure to keep an eye out for new releases. To play each and every one of these games, visit the official New York Times website. New challenges are released daily, and hints and answers are provided by the newspaper and other websites.
