Sorry, Wordlers: LinkedIn Games Are Just Better

LinkedIn games have started their tenure, with a suite of puzzles that are sure to interest anyone in the circle of daily puzzle digests.

LinkedIn has introduced games that users can play with expanding their career network. Photo by Owen Whelan '27

LinkedIn has entered the daily puzzle game market with logic-driven challenges, offering a fresh alternative to The New York Times’ beloved games by sidestepping pop culture and focusing on universal skills that cater to a global audience. Recent puzzles have had a variety of seasonal themes that keep the puzzles fresh, while still bringing consistent challenges.

The New York Times’ collection of games has become iconic ever since the original release of the Crossword in 1942. Many people sign in daily to solve the Mini, Wordle and Connections. It’s gotten to the point where people are beginning to get tired of Wordle results being posted to social media outlets, and “spoiling” answers is considered a cardinal Internet sin. 

However, their reign has become contested, with many puzzlers not even realizing it. LinkedIn quietly joined the daily puzzle game ritual market in April with logic-based titles, rather than the pop culture and wordplay-infused games of the Times. 

There are currently four games in LinkedIn’s all-star lineup. Tango and Queens are two Sudoku-like games with an emphasis on making icons fit in rows and columns. Solving Tango is an iterative process that feels more like uncovering a mystery than solving Sudoku, but Queens still gives the philosopher-esque feeling of carefully eliminating cells. 

Two vocabulary titles accompany the main two puzzlers. Pinpoint has players guess a word or phrase based on five increasingly specific clues. The answers literally slide into place as you solve it, so arriving at a solution is smoother, rather than the staggered and sudden success of Wordle or the Mini. Crossclimb has users link words together on a ladder-like chart. I find this to be the weakest of the collection, but it gives users the opportunity to knock it out in under 10 seconds. Power users can finish the suite in about five minutes, and like New York Times games, the puzzles update daily.

The universality of LinkedIn’s offerings goes over the high bar set by the Times. Unlike the Mini, Crossword or Connections, no pop culture knowledge is needed to jump into games like Tango or Queens. Instead, they challenge intuition and the ability to think about a puzzle from multiple angles, while still being unique every day. They hold onto their universality while still being topical and fun, such as the Queens puzzle from Oct. 31, which contained a pumpkin-shaped grid. 

This also opens up the puzzles to non-English speakers or people who may not be attuned to American trends. If you like guessing pop culture answers, Pinpoint and Crossclimb both challenge that skill and stay on topic with recent themes.

The difficulty bar on many of the Times’ games is also worth mentioning. In addition to Mini’s need for pop culture knowledge, Connections may require literary knowledge that you may not want to recall on your campus commute, like lines from Shakespeare or niche knowledge like “kinds of earrings.”

LinkedIn has engineered its games to decrease randomness and the need to use hints or websites that post answers. Every game can be beaten in one shot with no guesswork required. LinkedIn even provides a run-through of their harder puzzle games, so you can watch and learn how to beat them faster after you’ve solved the day’s challenge. Hints are delayed to encourage you to move on on your own, but they are always available and give just enough help to keep you moving, but not so much that it spoils the game.

The major drawback to LinkedIn’s puzzles is the need for an actual LinkedIn account. Many students and faculty have them regardless, but it does mean you’ll have to stay signed in on the app or website. 

With accounts, however, comes leaderboards by person and organization; if you’re posting your Wordle results anyway, then you should be thrilled to know that LinkedIn ranks users by organization after they finish any given game. 

You may smile at your sub-minute Mini, but real Red Foxes get Marist College to #1 on Queens. You’re also able to see who else in your professional circle solved the puzzle, and statistics such as “top 50% of players” are free and accessible right after you finish playing. 

If you’re procrastinating your essays anyway, consider catching up with the other kinds of connections with the games on LinkedIn. At the very least, these four challenges are strong additions to your daily puzzle digest.