A daily puzzle index

Best Daily Puzzles

Every daily puzzle game worth a bookmark, on one page. One puzzle a day, the same one for everybody, free unless the margin says sub.

41 games

Start here

  1. Wordle3–5 minSix guesses at a five-letter word. The one every other game on this page is measured against.
  2. Puzzmo5–30 minA full page of dailies in one place — Cross|word, SpellTower, Typeshift, Flipart, Really Bad Chess.
  3. daycrumb2–5 minA daily edition of short original puzzles, the same one for everybody. No account, no streak to protect.

Word & letters

Anagrams, grids and guessing games. The biggest category by far.

  1. Wordle3–5 minSix guesses at a five-letter word.
  2. Connections5–10 minSixteen words, four hidden groups of four. The traps are the point.
  3. Strands5–10 minA themed word search with one phrase that spans the whole board.
  4. Spelling Bee10–20 min · subSeven letters, one compulsory. Free play caps out before Genius.
  5. The Mini Crossword1–3 minA 5×5 crossword you can finish standing up.
  6. Quordle5–10 minFour Wordle boards at once, nine guesses for all of them.
  7. Octordle10–15 minEight boards, thirteen guesses. Quordle for people who coped.
  8. Waffle3–5 minSwap letters around a waffle-shaped grid in fifteen moves.
  9. Squaredle10–20 minFind every word hiding in a small letter grid, not just one.
  10. Contexto5–20 minGuess the word by meaning. Unlimited guesses, ranked warmer or colder.
  11. Semantle10–30 minThe same idea, harder and older: nearness measured by a language model.
  12. daycrumb2–5 minShort original word puzzles, in a new edition every day.

Geography & maps

Countries, borders, trade and photographs of somewhere.

  1. Worldle2–4 minName the country from its outline; guesses point you nearer.
  2. Globle3–6 minHunt one country on a spinning globe, hotter and colder.
  3. Tradle3–5 minIdentify a country from a chart of what it exports.
  4. Travle5–10 minGet from one country to another by naming the ones between.
  5. GeoGrid5–10 minFill a 3×3 grid with countries that satisfy both clues.
  6. TimeGuessr5–10 minPlace a photograph in the world and in the right year.

Film, TV & music

Stills, soundtracks and the box office.

  1. Framed2–3 minName the film from one still; each miss adds another frame.
  2. Cine2Nerdle5–15 minLink films by shared cast and crew before the connections run out.
  3. Box Office Game3–6 minGuess the top five films of a given weekend, in order.
  4. Bandle2–4 minA song revealed one instrument at a time, until you name it or run out.

Sport

Mostly American, mostly grids of players.

  1. Poeltl2–4 minEight guesses at one NBA player, narrowed by team and stats.
  2. Immaculate Grid5–10 minName a player for every square where two teams or feats intersect.
  3. Weddle2–4 minThe same shape as Poeltl, for the NFL.

Numbers & logic

Nothing to know in advance — everything is deducible from the board.

  1. Clues by Sam5–15 minA daily whodunnit on a grid of neighbours. It will not let you guess.
  2. Nerdle3–6 minWordle for arithmetic: guess the equation, not the word.
  3. Mathler3–6 minFind the sum that reaches today's number in six guesses.
  4. NYT Sudoku5–25 minThree difficulties a day, free, with no sign-in.

Trivia & knowledge

Games where knowing something is most of the job.

  1. Metazooa5–10 minFind the animal by walking the tree of life; each guess shows the nearest branch.
  2. Chronophoto3–5 minDate five photographs. Being a decade out costs you.
  3. Gamedle2–5 minName the video game from cover art, a screenshot or a keyword.

Hubs — several dailies in one place

Publishers and platforms that put a whole page of puzzles up every day.

  1. NYT Gamesvaries · subWordle, Connections, Strands and the Mini are free; the rest wants a subscription.
  2. PuzzmovariesZach Gage and friends: modern classics and originals, one daily set.
  3. daycrumbvariesA new edition of short original puzzles every day. Nothing to sign up for.
  4. USA Today PuzzlesvariesA free daily crossword, sudoku, jumble and quick cross.
  5. Guardian PuzzlesvariesQuick, cryptic, quiptic and prize crosswords, free in the browser.
  6. Washington Post Gamesvaries · subThe daily and Sunday crosswords, plus a handful of others.
  7. Puzzle Pagevaries · subA phone app rather than a site: a new page of 20+ puzzle types daily.

Bigger directories

This page is a shortlist. When you have played through it, these are the long lists.

  1. Dle Hunt—200+ ·dle games sorted by category, with ratings and a daily playlist.
  2. Thinky Games—Curated latest-and-best lists, leaning hard towards logic puzzles.
  3. Wordles of the World—A community list of Wordle variants — hundreds of them, across 150+ languages.

Questions

What is a daily puzzle game?

One puzzle, the same for everybody, replaced at a fixed time each day. You play it once and you are done — which is the whole appeal, and why results are worth sharing: your friends had the same puzzle you did.

Are these free?

Most are free with no account. A few are marked otherwise: the New York Times gives Wordle, Connections, Strands and the Mini away and puts the rest behind a subscription, Spelling Bee stops short of the full game, and Puzzle Page is a phone app with in-app purchases.

What should I play after Wordle?

Connections, if you liked the guessing. Contexto, if you want the same game made much harder. Clues by Sam, if what you actually enjoyed was the deduction rather than the letters. Puzzmo or daycrumb, if you would rather have several short ones than one long one.

When do daily puzzles reset?

It depends on the game. Most independent ones roll over at midnight UTC so that everybody plays the same puzzle on the same date; the newspapers tend to use their own local midnight, which is why a New York Times puzzle can arrive during your evening.

How is this list chosen?

By hand, and kept short on purpose. Every entry is a game that still runs, still updates daily, and is worth a bookmark rather than one afternoon. Links go to the game's own site, never to a copy of it.