NYT Connections: The definitive guide to the New York Times’ viral word puzzle

The rise of NYT Connections

When Wordle became a global sensation, The New York Times saw an opportunity to expand its digital puzzle empire. Enter NYT Connections, a minimalist yet mind-bending word grouping game launched in 2023. Created by associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu, Connections challenges players not to guess words, but to recognize invisible links between them. With over 10 million daily players by 2025, the game has surged into mainstream culture — dominating TikTok, Reddit, and group chats alike. But what exactly is NYT Connections, and why is it so gripping?

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is a logic-based word game from The New York Times Games suite. The daily puzzle presents players with a 4×4 grid of 16 words. The goal? Sort them into four distinct groups of four that share a common theme. It sounds simple — but the magic lies in how ambiguous, misleading, and cleverly deceptive those groupings can be. A puzzle might feature words like “Mercury,” “Venus,” “Earth,” and “Mars” — an obvious group. But it could also throw in words like “Apple,” “Amazon,” and “Meta” — leading to confusion between planets, companies, gods, or concepts. Each puzzle has only one correct solution, and part of the challenge is resisting the false patterns that emerge too easily. Unlike Wordle, Connections isn’t about language mastery — it’s about intuition, reasoning, and context.

How to play NYT Connections

Playing NYT Connections is straightforward, though solving it rarely is. Each day, the game resets at midnight Eastern Time with a fresh 16-word grid. Players must find four words that share a common connection, tap them, and hit “Submit.” If correct, those four disappear. If not, it counts as a failed attempt. Players are allowed up to four mistakes. Once the puzzle is solved — or failed — players can share their results via social media in a colorful block format, similar to Wordle’s design. Each group you identify is color-coded to indicate its difficulty level. What makes the game addictive is its mix of simplicity and subtlety. It rewards lateral thinking, pop culture awareness, and even pun recognition.

Understanding the colored difficulty levels

Each of the four correct groups is tagged with a color by the NYT team, denoting its relative difficulty. Here’s what they mean:

• Yellow – Easy: straightforward categories like fruits, colors, or numbers.
• Green – Medium: slightly abstract or pop-cultural themes.
• Blue – Hard: often includes trickier associations or wordplay.
• Purple – Tricky: the toughest group, typically including puns, obscure links, or deep trivia.

The order in which you solve the groups doesn’t affect the score — but cracking purple early is often a badge of honor in the Connections community. These categories give players a hint about how abstract the puzzle might get. The presence of similar-looking or overlapping words makes distinguishing categories a mental chess game.

Winning strategies and solving tips

NYT Connections isn’t just a game of luck — it rewards certain habits and strategies. Here’s how to beat the puzzle more consistently:

• Start literal: Scan for obvious sets like sports, colors, or foods. Yellow is usually the most obvious group.
• Look for plural patterns: If several words end in “-ing” or are all brands, that’s a sign of a possible set.
• Eliminate overlaps: If a word fits in two possible groups, save it for later. Solve the group that’s more confident first.
• Watch for trick words: Some puzzles include red herrings — words that could belong to multiple categories. “Pitch,” for example, could relate to music, sales, or baseball.
• Use scratchpad logic: Some players jot down possible groups before committing them. Think through a group before you submit — mistakes are limited.

Why NYT Connections is going viral

Part of Connections’ appeal is psychological. It feels deceptively achievable. The interface is clean, the challenge feels fair, and the “aha!” moment when you crack a group is deeply satisfying. On social platforms, users post screenshots and memes about their purple group struggles — “That purple was criminal today” has become a recurring theme. Unlike Wordle, which became formulaic over time, Connections retains freshness by pulling from wide categories: slang, brands, literature, idioms, science, tech, pop culture, and beyond. It rewards the generalist and challenges the perfectionist. And crucially, it’s not easily cheat-able — because the connections can’t be simply Googled. The ambiguity makes it human, and in a world of AI and algorithms, that’s rare.

Where to play NYT Connections

You can play NYT Connections daily on The New York Times Games website:
https://www.nytimes.com/games/connections
It’s currently free to access without a subscription, though that may change as it joins the NYT Games paywall model alongside Spelling Bee and The Crossword. A mobile app version is available for iOS and Android, providing seamless play across devices. Sharing results is integrated and encouraged — a key part of the game’s viral spread.

Connections vs. Wordle: Which is harder?

While Wordle focuses on vocabulary and deduction, Connections revolves around logic and lateral association. Wordle gives you six tries and direct letter feedback. Connections gives you only four mistakes and no guidance on what you got “close.” Wordle is a solo sprint. Connections is more of a group riddle — many players solve it together over morning coffee or in WhatsApp groups. Difficulty-wise, Wordle may seem easier at first, but Connections requires deeper conceptual thinking. It’s a different flavor of challenge — one where you win by recognizing patterns, not just letters.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)