Wordle turned the daily guessing game into a habit, and a whole shelf of daily puzzles followed. This is a plain roundup of the ones worth a morning, grouped by what each one is built from.
Full disclosure: we make Rebusly, the visual entry near the bottom, so this list is not neutral. We describe every game the way we would want ours described, and we left off anything we could not confirm was still running today.
Guess, sort, or build words. The category Wordle started, and still the deepest bench.
Guess a hidden five-letter word in six tries. Each guess marks which letters are correct and which sit in the wrong place. It suits anyone who wants one short word puzzle a day, and it is the game everything here is measured against.
nytimes.com/games/wordleSort sixteen words into four hidden groups of four. The trap is that several words look like they fit more than one group until you commit. It suits players who like category and association over spelling.
nytimes.com/games/connectionsSolve four Wordle grids at once with nine guesses shared across all of them. Every guess lands on all four boards, so you plan moves instead of chasing one word. It suits players who found regular Wordle too quick.
merriam-webster.com/games/quordleCut a twelve-word sentence down to five, using only words the sentence already gave you. Colour scoring marks which words belong and which sit in the wrong place, so it reads like Wordle with whole words where the letters would be. It suits players who like editing and précis more than spelling.
sheets.works/long-story-shortRearrange scrambled letters on a waffle-shaped grid so six words cross correctly, in fifteen swaps or fewer. You start holding every letter and have to place them, not guess them. It suits players who like rearrangement over blind guessing.
wafflegame.netThree rhyme games running off a hand-edited rhyming dictionary. Hinky Pinky gives six clues whose answers are all perfect rhyme pairs, and Mission: Ignition runs ten rhymes to liftoff. It suits people who want the rhymes checked against a real dictionary rather than guessed at.
rhymehamster.comThe daily puzzle pointed at a map. Shapes, borders, exports, and distance.
Identify a country or territory from its outline in six guesses. Each wrong guess shows the distance and direction to the target. It suits players who know the shapes on a world map.
worldle.teuteuf.frGuess the mystery country by name, with each guess shaded by how close it lands to the target. There are no distance numbers, only warmer and colder. It suits players who prefer to reason their way in from proximity.
globle-game.comGuess a country from a chart of the goods it exports. The treemap shows what the economy sells to the world, and you name the seller in six tries. It suits players interested in trade and economics as much as maps.
games.oec.world/en/tradleName the chain of bordering countries that connects a start country to a destination. The fewer countries in your route, the better the score. It suits players who know which nations share a border.
travle.earthName the song. Played by ear rather than by letter.
Identify a song as it is built up one instrument at a time. Each wrong guess adds another part to the mix until the full arrangement plays. It suits music fans who want to name a track from how it is put together.
bandle.appGuess a song from a short clip of its opening that grows longer with each miss. It is a fan-made successor to Spotify's discontinued Heardle, keeping the same format alive. It suits players who liked racing to name a song from the first second.
reheardle.comThe Wordle loop, run on numbers and equations instead of words.
Guess a hidden arithmetic equation in six tries. Colors tell you which digits and operators are right and which are misplaced, the same way Wordle marks letters. It suits players who want the Wordle loop applied to numbers.
nerdlegame.comFind a hidden equation that equals a set target number in six guesses. The daily puzzle comes in four difficulties, from Easy to Extreme. It suits players who want a target to work back from rather than a free equation.
mathler.comDeduction over guessing. Rule things out until one answer stands.
Read a picture instead of a word. The newest and thinnest shelf, and the one we work on.
Identify a film from up to six stills shown one at a time. Each wrong or skipped guess reveals another frame from the movie. It suits people who watch a lot of films and trust their eye for a shot.
framed.wtfDecode a hand-drawn rebus that hides a phrase from the day's news, then read curated coverage of the story behind it. The answer is a picture you read rather than a word you guess, which suits players who want a visual puzzle and the news in the same two minutes. This is our site, and the one entry on this list we make.
rebusly.comName a real thing from the facts about it. Every wrong guess tells you how close you were.
Name the mystery brand in ten guesses. Each guess is scored against eight attributes including headquarters country, founding year, sector, revenue and headcount, so a wrong answer still narrows the field. It suits people who follow companies and like closing on an answer by degrees.
playshople.comFive rounds, two strange stories in each, and only one of them actually ran. Pick the real one and the game shows its proof, the original headline and the clipping it came from, with a link out to the archive it was pulled from. It suits people who like the odd corners of the news and want the receipt afterwards.
madethepapers.comRebusly is a free daily rebus drawn from the day's news. Decode the visual, name the phrase, read the coverage behind it. No account, no ads.