The New York Times kept readers on their toes in 2025, thanks to its stable of popular games. There were more than 11.2 billion puzzles solved on New York Times Games this year, led by 4.2 billion Wordle puzzles solved and 1.6 billion solves in Connections.

The creator of Wordle has returned with another word game based on cryptic crosswords, and it's completely free to play.

Josh Wardle, the creator of Wordle, has a new game that aims to introduce players to the joys and agonies of the cryptic crossword.