The Rise and Fall of Connections

A Marist student plays the New York Times Connections game at the campus library. Photo via Margaret Batta '27

Four Words: Frustration. Satisfaction. Anger. Pride. Category: Emotions experienced when doing the New York Times Game, Connections.

Following its beta version debut in June 2023, Connections burst onto the scene as a fan-favorite game. While still lagging behind the popularity of its predecessor Wordle, Connections proved to be extremely lucrative in the cultural landscape. Nearly eight months after its initial launch, it remains present in the public consciousness with numerous social media discussions about it daily and a subreddit dedicated to the game (r/NYTConnections) featuring 25,000 members.

Despite the acclaim, the reputation of Connections has recently taken a hit. Numerous fans have recently turned to critiquing the game, with many people turning to social media to air their grievances. TikTok users, such as @iampaulconway, have posted content regarding the ridiculous categories that have become seemingly impossible to decipher. 

The most maligned of these categories are ones about the structures of words, like the purple category “Colors With the First Letter Changed” from Feb. 22, as many find them difficult to decipher. This pattern coincides with a certain theming of birds, as there have been multiple instances where categories pertain to the addition or removal of a letter within the name of a bird species, like Nov. 22’s “'C' + Bird” on Nov. 22 and “Birds Minus the Last Letter” on March 8.

Videos critiquing said categories, like those from @iampaulconway, have garnered wide support, featuring comments from “I had to stop playing connections it made me violent” by @kaykaywearscrocs and “connections makes me clinically insane” by @eden_sigal. 

Similar sentiments are reflected here at Marist College, as summarized by Isabella Loiacono ‘27. “[Connections] makes me really angry sometimes, but when I solve it, I feel so accomplished,” she said. “I feel like since a lot of people have started playing it recently, they’re trying to make it harder, so people talk about it more and more people play it because some of [the categories] are just ridiculous.”

The supposed change in difficulty over the past is one of the largest criticisms for Connections, as reflected by William Silkowitz ‘27.

“I remember when it was first getting popular, and I used to get it in 30 seconds. That doesn’t mean it was too easy, it was just a little fun brain teaser. I didn’t remember it ever being hard,” he said. “Sometime around winter break, it started getting ridiculously hard. They just come up with random categories that make it really frustrating. Honestly, I used to enjoy it more, but now I don’t enjoy it as much. It’s kind of like a chore now.” 

While many have felt this shift in difficulty, game editor Wyna Liu suggests otherwise when discussing the creation of Connections. In an article for the New York Times, Liu stated that there “would have to be a mix of categories for the game to feel challenging and satisfying. That’s where the puzzle element could come in: Some categories might be defined by their use of wordplay — palindromes, homophones, adding or dropping letters and words — rather than the literal meanings of the words on the cards.” Though Liu may have planned the difficulty and structure of the game from the start, the public seems to be irked by it now more than ever. 

However, not everyone seems to be bothered by the fluctuating nature of Connections. One of these outliers is Jared Guerin ‘27. “I like the varying difficulty because I don’t like it to be too easy all the time. It’s nice to have a challenge,” he said.
Despite the uproar, Connections seems to be staying strong as a commonly played game. Whether it will continue to stir up the public or regain its status as the New York Times’ darling (besides Wordle) is up for debate. In the meantime, you can expect far more X posts complaining about categories pertaining to birds.