It’s all fun and games.
Though its iconic crossword puzzle was first unveiled on Feb. 15, 1942, the New York Times Games section has skyrocketed in the past few years — and the data for 2024 proves it.
Everdeen Mason, editorial director of Games, revealed to Today.com that 11.1 billion puzzles were solved in 2024.
April 23, 2024, was the day that Wordle had its most played game in 2024. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto / ShutterstockOf those, 5.3 billion were Wordle games — but one particular day of Wordle was so difficult that it ended 5.6 million streaks.
On Oct. 15, the word “corer” stumped millions of people who couldn’t guess the correct answer in six tries.
April 23, 2024, was the day that Wordle had its most played game last year. The word of that day was “rover.”
The Times revealed that 2.8 million people use the same starting word every day, with the most popular being “adieu.”
Connections — the game where users have to find themes in a pile of words, sorting 16 words into four categories — is the second-most-played game behind Wordle, and the most-played puzzle was on April 1.
On Oct. 15, the word “corer” ended 5.6 million streaks. Chad Robertson – stock.adobe.comJune 20 saw the most difficult Connections, and the most shared puzzle was on Jan. 11. The most common mistake for that puzzle was grouping “bolt,” “nail,” “nut” and “screw.”
Spelling Bee had a total of 535 pangrams in 2024, and the longest pangram was “nationalization” on Jan. 8.
Over the year, spellers reached Genius status or higher 154 million times — but only 46 solvers found every pangram in 2024.
Meanwhile, the Mini Crossword had 2.1 billion plays, and Strands garnered 1.1 million plays.
The Mini Crossword debuted in 2014, followed by the digital version of Spelling Bee in 2018, but the Games app became a sensation when it acquired Wordle in 2022. Connections was introduced in 2023, and Strands is the newest game, joining the app last year.






