NYT Connections
Ranked 4 of 6 word games by recommenders
Recommended as a difficult daily word puzzle that never feels unfair, and preferred over similar puzzle games.
6 people recommended NYT Connections in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 6 comments.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 2
The record
Recommended in 4 of 12 months
In 5 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 5 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 33% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 6 of the 9 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Preferred over similar puzzles
“the puzzle setting for Connections is inferior”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Man, these New York Times games are hard A computational perspective” “Connections is better anyway.”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “A Crisis comes to Wordle: Reusing old words” Difficult but fair, well liked
“Connections is great. And definitely difficult (but never feels unfair”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “Man, these New York Times games are hard A computational perspective” “I also like NYT Connections”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I used AI and embeddings to build word-chain puzzles with closed loops”
Other word games people recommend
The four most recommended other word games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wordle | 18 | 6 | 20 | 47% | 8 | — | — |
| Tiled Words | 17 | 1 | 1 | 94% | 4 | — | — |
| Uncrossy | 9 | 9 | 6 | 60% | 2 | — | — |
| NYT ConnectionsThis page | 6 | 1 | 2 | 75% | 4 | — | — |
| Don't Wordle | 5 | 1 | 2 | 71% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 9 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Connections is infuriating.”
“Connections is better anyway.”
“the puzzle setting for Connections is inferior”
“Connections is great. And definitely difficult (but never feels unfair”
“I also like NYT Connections”
“I'd be inclined to stick to the lovingly human-created NYT puzzles.”
Counts come from Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 3 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.