Wordle has been one of the most famous phone games for nearly two years, but that might change. Wordle has rapidly increased in popularity since its initial release. One month into the game there were only 90 players, two months later there were 300,000. The reason for the growing popularity is its approachable nature. Wordle only takes approximately four minutes to complete, there are no ads, there is no pay-to-win, it’s simply a puzzle. It’s very refreshing to pause the quick-paced and negative social media to use your mind and test your knowledge. It’s been proven that mental stimuli, such as Wordle and other puzzle games, can help prevent dementia and increase memory ability.
Wordle is not only a game for yourself, but a game for socializing. Many people use Wordle as a competition to see who can get the word in the least amount of attempts. Because of the superiority complex of highschoolers, it has become very popular for the younger audience.
With the success of Wordle, the New York Times has branched out into creating new games reintroducing old ones like Sudoku and The Daily Mini. Many people enjoy having an easy and quick way of playing these games. However, none compare to the rising popularity of Connections.
Connections is a game where you must find a connection between 16 words in groups of four. For example, the words: Oral, Final, Bar, and Physical are connected by the following word exam (oral exam, bar exam, etc). This challenging game became very trendy very fast.
Connections poses a much bigger challenge than Wordle. Unlike Connections, Wordle gives you hints as you go along. Meanwhile, in Connections you only have four attempts to get all four categories and the only hint you get is when you have three out of four of the words the game tells you “one away.” For this reason, the success rate for connections is usually lower. In Wordle, it is easier to guess and get lucky because you know some of the letters and have six guesses. But in Connections, you have to assess every word. Most of the time the same word could fit into multiple categories, so you have to account for the bigger picture and consider all four categories when you pick which words fit the best together. This can make the game frustrating more often than satisfying.
This provokes the question, which game is better? When it comes down to it, which game is better depends on preference. Connections is objectively more difficult and more thought-provoking. However, that means more time to play, and in this day and age where attention spans are dwindling, fewer people have the patience to take the time and solve the puzzle. Generally because of this, more people enjoy playing Wordle than Connections.
At the core of all these new and old New York Times games is a chance to slow down from the busyness of life and test your mind in a fun and unique way. If you aren’t already playing Wordle, Connections, or any other short puzzle game I highly recommend you take the five minutes to do so.
