The New York Times is expanding its enormously popular Games app beyond its familiar daily-puzzle routine with a new weekly “drop” of bonus puzzles, including a timed Wordle in 1 , a bite-sized 3×3 version of Connections and experimental versions of several other Times games.

The new bonus puzzles will ultimately be available to subscribers only, though the Times is offering free sampling at launch. Some of these have been available elsewhere—the Easy Mode Crossword appears in the Easy Mode Newsletter, for instance—but they’re now being collected in a dedicated bonus-puzzle section of the Games app.

“Bonus puzzles are an exciting addition to continue diversifying our portfolio, with each puzzle built on mechanics that our solvers already know and love, but with novelty to make them feel distinct from the daily puzzles,” said Jonathan Knight, head of Games, in a press release. “Designed for flexible, low-pressure play, the weekly drop gives solvers more ways to play with no daily obligations. And this new offering builds upon the value of a New York Times Games subscription, introducing fresh and exclusive puzzles that leave solvers excited to return for more.”

All The New Bonus Puzzles On The NYT Games App

Here’s what to expect for now, though it’s possible more bonus puzzles will be added to the roster down the line.

  • Wordle in 1: A variation of Wordle where players are given a partially completed Wordle board with only one possible solution. There are five rounds in each Wordle in 1 game, with one word to guess in each round. Players need to solve all five to win. There’s also a timer involved, adding a little pressure—and a competitive element—to this new Wordle twist.
  • Connections 3x3: This one is decidedly the “Easy Mode” of Connections, where there are three groups of three words to connect instead of four groups of four. I’ve argued often for a “poison word” Hard Mode variation but, according to Knight, Connections is already a game where a lot of people fail, and failing can be a bitter pill for puzzle-solvers – though he also notes that Connections players are intrepid enough to keep coming back even when they do fail.
  • Colorful Strands: A variation of Strands with more visually interesting colors and designs. We’ve seen these before in special editions of Strands like the very fun “Palette Episodes” Strands puzzle from last December .
  • Mystery Mini: A variation of the Mini, where the rules are the same but with a creative twist to the presentation of the grid or the clues.
  • Easy Mode Crossword: A special version of the Friday Crossword, featuring the same grid but easier clues for one of the hardest crossword puzzles of the week. This puzzle is also published in the Easy Mode Newsletter every Friday. As you can see, many of these are easier versions of the original games – though Wordle In 1 sounds pretty tricky.
  • Special Crossword: A special themed version of the Crossword, published on the first day of each month. The puzzles are designed to have the difficulty of an early-week puzzle and to use a single theme throughout. In a fun twist, puzzle editor Christina Iverson has teamed up with celebrity constructors who have a unique point of view, such as Nick Offerman , Jeff Tweedy , Bianca Del Rio and Gabby Windey . I’m very curious to see how these shape up.

Bonus puzzles are live today , with some freebies available to everyone. Going forward, weekly drops will be for Games and All Access subscribers only, continuing a strategy to add value for existing subscribers, while also presenting puzzle-solvers on the fence about a subscription with more reasons to sign up.

The bonus puzzles landed today at 8 a.m. ET but will normally release at midnight local time, just like Wordle, Connections and most other NYT Games puzzles. Crosswords remain the oddball, sticking with their legacy release schedule.

Why NYT Games Is Adding Bonus Puzzles

Weekly bonus puzzle drops mark an interesting evolution for the NYT Games app, which has traditionally been built around the daily puzzle ritual—something Knight calls “the heartbeat of our business.”

You only play Wordle once and you’re done (though custom Wordles have already changed that cadence to some degree). When I spoke with Knight about the changes, he assured me that a great deal of thought had gone into this question and that the philosophy behind the bonus games – which are tucked away in the app’s UI – is low-pressure rather than an attempt to create FOMO like so many live-service games out there.

“We call it time well spent," Knight said. "We want the app to be time well spent. We don’t want you in our app all day, every day stressing out about whether you got to everything.”

Knight says the goal is to be respectful of people’s time rather than “nagging you and bombarding you,” and notes that users will have the entire week to finish these relatively short bonus puzzles.

How NYT Games Is Changing Without Changing Wordle

On whether this was an attempt at retention or acquiring new subscribers, Knight told me that the Times hopes these puzzles provide enough additional value that people “on the fence about a subscription” decide to subscribe, while also giving existing subscribers another reason to renew.

Subscriber value is very clearly the north star here. While the Games app saw enormous growth after the acquisition of Wordle and the later release of Connections, engagement appears to have leveled off somewhat: NYT Games logged 11.1 billion puzzle plays in 2024 and 11.2 billion in 2025. Meanwhile, the Times’ broader digital subscriber growth slowed in the most recent quarter, even as subscription revenue continued to rise .

“We’ve been very focused this summer on how do we add more subscriber value," Knight said, "to make sure that those who are current subscribers want to stay longer." This weekly bonus drop is just one part of that strategy.

There are limits to how much change players actually want, however—especially when it comes to Wordle.

According to Knight, when the Times asks players what they want the company to do with Wordle, “far and away the biggest response is, don’t do anything. It’s perfect.”

We also spoke about the upcoming Wordle TV game show—which Knight says has already finished filming—whether the Games team will need to hire more puzzle constructors, future NYT Games projects and much more in our full interview, which you can watch right here .