Connections is a category-matching puzzle[1] developed and published by The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games. It was released on June 12, 2023, during its beta phase. It is the second-most-played game that is published by the Times, behind Wordle.[2][3][4]
Gameplay
A partially completed game of Connections from March 12, 2024. The remaining answers are: "Also, And, Plus, With" in green for "Including", and "Daddy, Harlem, Howl, If" in purple for "Famous poems".
In Connections, the goal is to divide a grid of sixteen terms into four groups of four such that the terms in each group belong to a specific category (e.g., "dog", "cat", "fish", and "parrot" for the category "Household Pets").[5] The categories may involve wordplay such as palindromes or homophones, increasing the difficulty.[1] When a player successfully identifies a group, its category is revealed along with a color-coded difficulty level: categories are rated yellow, green, blue, or purple, with yellow being the most straightforward and purple being the most difficult. Each Connections game has one category from each difficulty level.[1]
For April Fools' Day of 2024, the game temporarily used emojis instead of words.[6] For April Fools' Day of 2025, the game consisted of symbols.[7]
Development
The games department of the Times hosts an annual game jam in which participants suggest ideas for upcoming games to release to the website.[8] Connections had been in development for a year before releasing in its beta phase on June 12, 2023.[2][9] Wyna Liu, editor of the Times and Connections's puzzles, was inspired by cartoonist Robert Leighton, who made puzzles involving wordplay.[10]
Several people associated with Only Connect, a British television quiz show, have commented on the similarity between Connections and the Connecting Wall segment of the program.[11][12][13]
Sports edition
Connections: Sports Edition
Developer(s) The Athletic
Publisher(s) The New York Times Games
Writer(s) Mark Cooper
Platform(s) Web, iOS, Android
Release September 24, 2024
Genre(s) Word game
Mode(s) Single-player
On September 24, 2024, The Athletic, in partnership with The New York Times Games, launched a sports edition of Connections in beta. The sports edition features the same gameplay as the regular version, with each grouping sports-themed.[14][15] The game was officially launched on February 9, 2025, to coincide with Super Bowl LIX. Games are written by The Athletic's managing editor for news, Mark Cooper, who became the site's puzzle editor with the launch.[16] Cooper said that unlike the original version, which he called a word game, the sports edition relied more on a trivia component to solve, with Cooper trying to include one category each game that is trivia based. Additionally, Cooper tries to have the purple category feature wordplay like the original. With the game's official launch, an optional timer for completing the puzzle was added.[17]
