Got it in two! Got it in four! We all heard our classmates say this after meticulously staring at their laptop screen and periodically sighing for five minutes straight, but what are these people actually talking about? Over the past two years the New York Times Games gained extra popularity among high school and college students thanks to easy gameplay and its absence from the list of OCPS blocked websites. 

NYT Games offers seven different mini games: the most popular of them is Wordle, where you have to guess a five-letter word in six attempts or less. Connections is a runner up to Wordle by popularity; the goal of Connections is to group sixteen words in four groups of four by finding a common theme. Another game is Strands, with a goal of unscrambling six to nine words from forty eight letters provided connected by a spangram, the common theme. There is also Spelling Bee, where you have to make up as many words as possible from the seven letters provided; Letterboxed in which you create words using letters around the square; Tiles in which you match tiles in a logical chain, and good ol’ Sudoku and Crossword. The Oracle interviewed our Titans on their opinions on the NYT Games.

Riya Murugappan, Jacob Resnick, and Mia McCrea all reported that they found out about NYT Games by seeing their peers talk about it or play it on their laptops. Xinyi Chen, on the other hand, knew about the NYT Games ever since she was in 6th grade. “My teacher always used to play it on the big TV, that’s how I found out about them,” Chen says. Many other NYT Games lovers, me included, saw people on social media post about it and film themselves completing daily quests and sharing their opinions and insights on their favorite mini games. A group of TikTok users, known as NYT Crew (@dailyxsav, @totallynotcam, @kennyhaller, @michael.dicostanzo), gained popularity posting about NYT Games and spreading the word about famous mini games around Tik Tok. Thanks to them, many people discovered the world of NYT Games, and NYT Crew gained a big platform to continue to explore their passion for video reporting.

As to their favorite games, Titans are split. Mia and Xinyi preferred Strands because it’s pretty easy. Mia also mentioned that her passion for such crosswords began ever since she was little, she brought up the times when she “used to do little crosswords, similar to Strands, with [her] grandparents.” Jacob disagreed, proposing Connections as his all time favorite because he is “not that good at it, so it’s more of a challenge.” Riya’s favorite game turned out to be Tiles, she said that it’s “satisfying and strangely unpopular.” 

Nonetheless, Wordle remains a runner up to their favorite in everyone’s NYT Games ranks. Interestingly enough, it requires the most critical thinking and strategy. For example, the starting word is one of the most important requirements for success, it will either make or break you. Resnick and Chen both agreed that ADIEU is the perfect starting word because it lets you eliminate three whole vowels at once. McCrea and Murugappan preferred STARE and GHOST, respectively. Strategically, these starting words give players a better chance at getting the word in less tries because either use the most common letters and placements seen in words previously guessed.

Mia, Jacob, and Riya all agreed that Connections is the hardest NYT Game, Riya cried that “combinations are so random, I can never get it.” Xinyi, on the contrary, offered Spelling Bee and Letterboxed as the hardest NYT Games. Jacob mentions that the easiest game, on the other hand, is Strands. When asked the same question, Xinyi and Mia both agreed that Tiles is the easiest game to play, Mia also nominated Vertex for the easiest game, which used to be in the list of NYT Games until it was discontinued by the editors on August 29, 2024. Vertex was another visual logic game, similar to the classic “connect the dots”, however it was not as popular as other games, so the New York Times made a tough decision to remove it in order to make room for new games. 

We know about their favorite, easiest, and hardest games now, but what about the most underrated one? McCrea and Resnick supported each other’s pick of Tiles as the least appreciated one. McCrea commented, “I’ve never heard anyone talk about it. It’s really fun though, the patterns change every day.” Chen argued that Strands is very underrated, “I don’t think it gets the attention it deserves”, she added. Murugappan pointed out that Letterboxed is the game everyone is sleeping on. 

As for me, I’ve been a fan of the NYT Games ever since the summer of 2022, when they were just gaining popularity on TikTok and various other social media platforms. I didn’t know English that well at the time, so I just watched others complete Wordle. I thought I would never acquire this skill, at least until I properly learn English. Then, I noticed that as I watched those videos, I made my own strategies as to how to solve each Wordle. Guessing the letters and words became an exercise for my brain so I decided to try it myself. Of course, at the beginning the answers were confusing and it was quite a challenge to come up with dozens of different five-letter words to insert as my answer. However, as time went on I challenged myself everyday to see how quick I could solve the Wordle, as I practiced my number of guesses decreased. Now, I can guess the Wordle in three attempts or less and there has also been an improvement in my vocabulary, which is a nice bonus for someone who doesn’t speak English as their first or second language.

 With time, I started discovering new games offered by the New York Times and each one was more interesting than the one before it. First, it was just Wordle, then, when Connections came out in the summer of 2023, I started adding new games to my daily NYT Games routine. After quite a lot of experience solving and following all NYT Games updates, I agree with most responses stating that Connections is really making me sweat trying to unscramble it. However, this is what I really like about this game and I can say that this is my favorite game out of all seven, offered by the New York Times. Strands, their most recent game, is also a close runner up for the name of the favorite, but it is quite a hit or miss kind of situation. Sometimes it is themed after something I know a lot about or just something I personally like, for example, one from October 24, 2024 with a spangram being MASALA CHAI and all of the words were spices you put in your chai like cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg, and so on. Others are confusing and contain words a lot of people have never heard before making it really difficult, if not impossible, to solve without any hints. Another hot take about the NYT Games that I had, and this is meant personally to Riya Murugappan, is that Letterboxed is the most confusing game ever and I can only imagine how big of a vocabulary is necessary to manage to figure it out every day. I truly believe that it should’ve been removed from the list of the games instead of Vertex.

So far, the New York Times Games has been a great success amongst Olympia students and staff. NYT Games gain popularity with each day and it is very exciting to see what the editors come up with next. I’m thrilled to discover new daily challenges that they have to offer.