What makes a game "like Wordle"
Not the letters. What people love is the format:
- one puzzle a day, so it never eats your evening;
- the same puzzle for everyone, so you can compare;
- a short result you can share without spoiling it.
Plenty of daily games keep that format and drop the words. Here are the kinds worth trying.
Path puzzles: Candy Path and LinkedIn's Zip
Draw one line through a grid. Visit the numbers in order and fill every square. It is pure logic and needs no language at all. Candy Path's daily puzzle is free in the browser. LinkedIn's Zip uses the same rule and is free for LinkedIn members. If you want more than one a day, the Candy Path app has hundreds of levels.
Grid logic: Queens and Tango
LinkedIn also has Queens, where you place one queen in each row, column and colour region without two touching, even at the corners, and Tango, where you fill a grid with two symbols under a few simple rules. Both are short daily logic puzzles.
Number games: Nerdle and friends
Nerdle takes the Wordle idea and makes you guess a short maths equation instead of a word. If you like arithmetic more than spelling, it scratches the same itch.
Map games: Worldle and Globle
Worldle shows the outline of a country and you guess which one it is. Globle tells you how close each guess is on a globe. Good for geography fans and for learning a few new countries.
Classic daily puzzles
Many newspapers publish a daily sudoku, and Parade has run the Numbrix number puzzle for years. They are older than Wordle but have the same one-a-day rhythm.
Which one to pick
- Want the quickest, calmest one: a path puzzle. You can see the whole problem at once and there is no guessing.
- Want deduction with no luck: Queens or Tango.
- Want guessing with feedback, like Wordle itself: Nerdle or Worldle.
Not sure how path puzzles work? The rules take a minute.
Candy Path is made by IdeaBridge GmbH. It is not made by, affiliated with or endorsed by LinkedIn. Zip is a game by LinkedIn; we mention it only to describe the puzzle type.