NEW YORK (PIX11) – Connections, the popular online word puzzle game by The New York Times, turned 1 year old in June.
The New York Times first launched the daily word game on June 12, 2023. Connections challenges players to sort 16 seemingly unrelated words into groups of four based on a shared theme.
The New York Times celebrated the one-year anniversary of Connections by sharing behind-the-scenes data about the game, including the five most difficult puzzles so far.
The most difficult puzzles were determined based on the solve rate of players. According to the Times, these were the five most difficult to date:
- Oct. 12, 2023 — (19.63% solve rate)
- Oct. 10, 2023 — (26.20% solve rate)
- July 19, 2023 — (29.67% solve rate)
- Aug. 16, 2023 — (29.86% solve rate)
- March 22, 2024 — (29.96% solve rate)
These were the categories for each of the five most difficult puzzles:
- Oct. 12, 2023 — (“Conceal,” “Parts of a witch,” “Wonder Woman’s costume” and “Things that can run”)
- Oct. 10, 2023 — (“Origin,” “Bible books,” “NHL teams” and “Power___”)
- July 19, 2023 — (“Trees,” “Land formations,” “Bagel flavors” and Streets on screen”)
- Aug. 16, 2023 — (“Time periods,” “Breakfast foods,” “Painters” and “One in a dozen”)
- March 22, 2024 — (“Jumping animals,” “Apply pressure to,” “Olympic sports” and “Things you can set”)
You can view the five most difficult Connections puzzles, including the words used in each game, on The New York Times’ Instagram.
Finn Hoogensen is a digital journalist who has covered local news for more than five years. He has been with PIX11 News since 2022. See more of his work here.
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