Games Like NYT Connections to Play in 2026
Connections is the puzzle that turned "I'm good at this" into "who approved the purple category" for millions of people every morning. If you've started solving it before your coffee's even brewed and want more of that daily-grouping itch, here's where to go next.
These are the games that scratch the same nerve — finding hidden patterns, reading the trick, and doing it all in five minutes flat. We'll start with one that flips the whole idea on its head.
1. Lyre — the trivia game with no right answer
Connections rewards you for spotting the one correct grouping the editor hid. Lyre asks the opposite question: not "what's the right answer," but "what will everyone else say?"
You get ten open-ended questions a day — "name a breakfast food," "name a movie everyone's seen" — and you type your own answers. You don't score for being clever or obscure. You score for being popular: if 800 other players also said "pancakes," that's 800 points. The whole game is predicting the crowd.
It hits the Connections crowd for the same reason the purple category does — it's a puzzle about how other people think, not just what you know. And like Connections, everyone plays the exact same daily set, so the leaderboard and the "how did you do" text thread come free. It's free on the App Store.
2. NYT Strands
The Times' newer word-search-meets-theme puzzle. You hunt for a hidden set of themed words plus a "spangram" that ties them together. Slower and cozier than Connections, with the same satisfying click when the theme reveals itself.
3. Wordle
The one that started the daily-puzzle era. Six guesses, one five-letter word, and a green-yellow-gray grid the whole internet learned to read. If you somehow skipped it, it's still the cleanest five minutes in games. (More options in our Wordle alternatives guide.)
4. Connections spinoffs (music, sports, movies)
The grouping mechanic spawned an entire genre. Fan-made and official editions now exist for almost any fandom — group the K-pop b-sides, the NFL quarterbacks, the A24 movies. Same "find the hidden category" dopamine, themed to your obsession.
5. NYT Mini Crossword
A whole crossword in the time it takes a kettle to boil. The Mini is the gateway to full crosswords, and racing friends on the daily solve time gets competitive quicker than you'd think.
6. Quordle
Four Wordle grids at once, nine guesses total. For anyone who found one grid insufficiently stressful. Weirdly meditative once you learn to spread your opening guesses.
7. Redactle
Deduce a redacted Wikipedia article one guessed word at a time. Slower-burn than a grouping puzzle, but the moment the hidden topic snaps into focus is one of the best "aha"s in daily games.
How to pick
If it's the pattern-finding you love, Strands and the Connections spinoffs are the closest cousins. If it's the shared daily ritual — everyone playing the same thing, then comparing — that's where Lyre fits, except the "answer" is other people. You're not solving the editor's puzzle; you're solving the crowd's.
Try Lyre — today's game is live, free on the App StoreNew here? Read What Is Lyre?, why there's no right answer, or the best daily games to play with friends.