8 Best Games Like NYT Connections You Should Try

The breakout success of NYT Connections has turned grouping words into a daily ritual for millions. The game’s simple yet challenging premise serves as a great logical reasoning exercise for players to start their day, especially with its dynamic themes and words. However, if you are tired of looking at the same 4 x 4 grid and craving a similar high, we’ve compiled a list of games like Connections that you can take on to keep your brain sharp.

PuzzGrid

If you are looking for games exactly like NYT Connections, PuzzGrid is the first game you should play. This game takes the “connecting wall” feature to another level. While NYT Connections gives you four distinct groups of four words, PuzzGrid requires you to find those groups within a strict time or point limit.

You are presented with 16 tiles with 16 words, and you need to either create groups of 4, much like Connections, or create a sequence of tiles that satisfy the unique condition of the puzzle.

Unlike NYT Connections, which remains relatively consistent, PuzzGrid allows users to create wild connections that rely on extremely obscure trivia or complex wordplay.

Connections: Sports Edition

Another major game like Connections is its sports alternative, Connections: Sports Edition, serving as a collaboration between NYT Games and The Athletic. The game features almost the same UI as Connections but shifts the vocabulary, with the 16 words centered on athletes, teams, stadiums, and sports jargon.

The sports edition tests encyclopedic knowledge rather than just linguistic patterns. For example, the groups in Sports Connections might be “MMA terms” or “Nicknames of former NBA players,” among other sports-related themes.

Strands

Strands is another member of the NYT Games family that serves a similar function to Connections. It’s a hybrid of a word search and a “theme” puzzle. You are given a grid of letters, and every single letter belongs to a word that fits a hidden theme.

Unlike standard word search, words can snake in any direction, i.e. up, down, diagonal, or zig-zag.

The Spangram in Strands is another standout feature, a special word that reveals the theme of the puzzle and touches two opposite sides of the board. Once you find the theme, the remaining letters become much easier to connect. Get the Strands answer today, so you are never left stranded.

Wordle

While Connections focuses on grouping, Wordle is the ultimate game of deduction and elimination. It remains the most iconic once-a-day puzzle that has sparked the modern obsession with the NYT Games suite.

The game gives you six attempts to find a secret five-letter word, with each guess providing color-coded feedback in green, yellow, and gray tiles. The reason Wordle lands on our list of games similar to Connections is because it requires the same pattern recognition skills.

Just as you might narrow down a category in Connections (maybe purple, the hardest category in Connections), Wordle players use strategic burner words to eliminate common consonants and vowels.

If you are looking for more tips and tricks to perform better in this word guessing game, you can check out our guide on how to play Wordle.

Codenames

While other games like Connections are solo experiences, Codenames turns word grouping fun into a battle between two teams. One player sees the solution and must provide a single-word clue that connects as many of them as possible.

For example, if the words are “Tokyo,” “Berlin,” and “Cairo,” you might say City: 3. But the feature that really sets Codenames apart is its neutral words and one Assassin word. If your team picks the Assassin word, you lose instantly. It tests the same part of your brain that Connections does, tasking you to search for a common thread among seemingly unrelated terms.

Contexto

Contexto is one of the most technologically unique games like NYT Connections. It does not use pre-set categories. Rather, it uses an AI algorithm to calculate the distance between words.

Contexto uses thousands of texts to see how often words appear near each other. If the secret word is “Dog,” the word “Leash” will be very close (rank #12, for example), while “Astronomy” will be far.

Unlike Connections, which gives you four guesses, Contexto gives you unlimited guesses, allowing you to narrow down the category by guessing words from different genres. Since it can be tough to get started with Contexto, we’ve got some great tips on how to play Contexto in this handy guide.

Even if you’ve learned the game but get stuck with answers daily, learn to avoid common Contexto mistakes and check out Contexto answers every day.

Spelling Bee

An unexpected entry into the list of Connections game alternatives is Spelling Bee. If your favorite part of Connections is the clever wordplay or finding hidden compound words, Spelling Bee is your perfect match.

This game trades grouping for shuffling, testing how many ways you can look at the same set of 7 letters. With a honeycomb of seven letters, your goal is to find as many words as possible, with the central yellow letter appearing in every word. And then, you also need to find at least one Pangram, which is a word that uses every single letter provided.

Just like Connections, Spelling Bee rewards players who can see a word for more than its literal definition, and you can check out our guide on how to play Spelling Bee to learn more about this intuitive daily ritual.

Nodes

Nodes is an outlier when talking about games like NYT Connections because it moves away from text. Instead, it is designed for players who enjoy the organization and categorization mechanic of Connections but want a break from word definitions.

You are given a scatter field of nodes, with the goal of connecting them to form geometric shapes like triangles, based on visual patterns or proximity. Much like seeing a category reveal itself in Connections, completing a set of nodes not only reveals a low-poly image but also helps you figure out the next node connection.

Have you checked out today’s Connections hints yet? If you have solved it, what alternative would you like to try next?