Games like Connections
The games most like Connections are other daily sorting puzzles: Connections: Sports Edition from the same team, PuzzGrid’s fan-made Only Connect walls, and the app Red Herring. If what you love is spotting the hidden link, LinkedIn’s Pinpoint, Contexto and Semantle scratch the same itch in a different way. We make Lie of Sight and Lacey’s Web, which aren’t word games at all, and they’re at the end for anyone who loves Connections for its aha moment more than its words.
Games like Connections at a glance
| Game | Made by | What you do | New case | Free? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connections: Sports Edition | The Athletic, with NYT Games | Sort 16 sports words into four groups | Daily | Yes |
| PuzzGrid | Fans of Only Connect | Sort a grid of 16 clues into four groups | Thousands of user-made grids | Yes, with paid extras |
| Red Herring | Blue Ox Family Games | Sort words into categories, with decoys | One free daily puzzle | Free to start, with paid packs |
| Pinpoint | Guess the category from clues shown one at a time | Daily | Anyone can play | |
| Strands | The New York Times | Find themed words in a letter grid | Daily | Yes |
| Contexto | Nildo Junior | Find a secret word by how close each guess is in meaning | Daily | Yes |
| Semantle | David Turner | Find a secret word by similarity scores | Daily | Yes |
| Bracket City | Ben Gross, at The Atlantic | Solve nested clues to rebuild a sentence | Daily | Yes |
| Lie of Sight | Us | Work out which of a family is lying about what they saw in a room | Every day, at midnight your time | Yes, all of it: the daily, plus 63 free cases |
| Lacey’s Web | Us | Join numbered knots into one web | Daily | Yes |
Checked on each game’s own site in October 2026. Prices and offers change, so check there too.
The closest to Connections
Connections: Sports Edition
The Athletic, with NYT Games · browser
The same game in a different jersey: 16 words, four groups of four, but every word comes from sport. Made by The Athletic, which The New York Times owns, and free on the NYT’s own list of free games. Good for: sports fans who solve the regular one in two minutes and want a second board.
PuzzGrid
fan-made · browser
Based on the connecting wall from the British quiz show Only Connect. Each grid is 16 clues in four hidden groups, and every grid is made by a player, so there are thousands to play. The site is free, with extras for supporters on Patreon. Good for: when one puzzle a day isn’t enough, and you like a quiz-show flavor, where a link can be about anything.
Red Herring
Blue Ox Family Games · iPhone and iPad
From the makers of 7 Little Words. You sort words into categories, and some words are planted to look as if they belong somewhere else. Free to download with a daily puzzle and a starter set, with puzzle packs to buy. Good for: an app on your phone built around Connections’ favorite trick, the word that seems to fit two groups.
For the “what links these?” feeling
Pinpoint
LinkedIn · browser or the LinkedIn app
Words appear one at a time, and you guess the category that joins them, using as few clues as you can. It’s Connections turned inside out: you’re given one group, a clue at a time, and must name what links it. LinkedIn says anyone can play, member or not. Good for: a 30-second warm-up.
Contexto
Nildo Junior · browser
Guess a word, and Contexto tells you how close it is in meaning to the secret word, as a rank. Number 1 is the answer. There’s no limit on guesses, so it’s more about following a trail of meaning than about being careful. Good for: people who like Connections’ purple group, where the link is about meaning and not spelling.
Semantle
David Turner · browser
The game Contexto grew out of, from January 2022: each guess gets a similarity score against the day’s secret word, in place of a rank. Good for: anyone who wants the original.
More from the same newspapers
Strands
The New York Times · browser and the NYT Games app
A themed word search on a 6 × 8 grid of letters. Words bend in any direction, and one word, the spangram, runs across the board and names the theme. It’s free, on the NYT’s own list. Good for: right after Connections, since it shares the “find the theme” feeling.
Bracket City
Ben Gross, published by The Atlantic · browser
A short sentence with clues in brackets, nested inside each other. Solve the innermost first, and the answers fill in the outer clues until the sentence reads. Free to play. Good for: crossword and riddle fans who want more wordplay than sorting.
Something different: puzzles about the link, without words
Connections is a word game, but the best moment in it isn’t about words. It’s the click when four things you’d looked at separately suddenly belong together. Two of our games are built around that click, with no words at all.
Lie of Sight
us · any browser
A room seen from above, and a family who each say what they could see from where they stood. Exactly one of them is lying. You move them around the room until everyone’s story fits but one. There’s no hidden word or trivia: everything you need is on the board, and each case has exactly one answer. A new case every day, about three minutes, free. Play today’s case.
Lacey’s Web
us · any browser
Numbered knots on a spider’s web. Each number says how many threads it held, and you spin them back into one web. It’s a logic puzzle in the family of Hashi bridges puzzles, not a word game, but the moment a stuck corner of the web suddenly falls into place feels a lot like finding the last group. A new web every day, about two minutes, free. Play today’s web, or read our Lacey’s Web guide.
How to pick
- You want the same game again: Connections: Sports Edition.
- You want lots of them: PuzzGrid.
- You want a phone app with no account: Red Herring.
- You love the purple group: Contexto, then Semantle.
- You want a puzzle with no words at all: Lie of Sight or Lacey’s Web.
For the bigger list of daily puzzles, word games and the rest, see daily puzzle games like Wordle. For dailies with no words, see games like Wordle, but not words.
Questions people ask
Is NYT Connections free?
Yes. The New York Times lists Connections among the daily games you can play without a subscription, along with Wordle, Strands, Connections: Sports Edition, Pips and Sudoku.
What’s the most like Connections?
Connections: Sports Edition is the same game with sports words. PuzzGrid is the closest outside the NYT: the same four-groups-of-four idea, with thousands of grids.
Is there a Connections game with more than one puzzle a day?
PuzzGrid. Every grid is made by a player, so you can play as many as you like.
Are there games like Connections that aren’t word games?
Yes. Lie of Sight and Lacey’s Web are daily logic puzzles with no words: one asks who’s lying about what they saw, the other asks you to join numbered knots into one web. Both are free.
More lists like this one
- Games like Murdle
- Games like Clues by Sam
- Games like Murdoku
- Games like Wordle
- Daily mystery games
- Daily puzzle games like Wordle
New to Lie of Sight? How to play has the rules and the family, with pictures.
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