EXCLUSIVE: Find out the Wordle puzzle that ended 5.6 million streaks in 2024

The New York Times may feature all the news that’s fit to print, but it also has all the games that are fun to play, with the numbers for 2024 to prove it.
Known for its iconic crossword puzzle that it unveiled on Feb. 15, 1942, the New York Times has expanded its games section in recent years. And now, the outlet has released key data from 2024 for its puzzles and other games, which editorial director of NYT Games Everdeen Mason revealed exclusively on TODAY on Dec. 31.
The Mini Crossword was introduced in 2014 and the digital version of Spelling Bee followed in 2018. The outlet then made a huge splash when it acquired Wordle in 2022, while Connections joined the Games app in 2023. Strands followed suit in 2024.
Take a look at some games stats from the New York Times this year:
Total number of puzzles solved this year: 11.1 billion
The Mini Crossword Plays: 2.1 billion
Strands Plays: 1.3 billion
Wordle Plays: 5.3 billion
Wordle
The 1,000th Wordle puzzle ran in March, a milestone for the popular game where players tend to stick to a formula, with 2.8 million people using the same starting word every day as proof. The most popular starting word, by the way, is “adieu.”
The most played Wordle puzzle in 2024 was on April 23. That word was “rover.” A total of 5.6 million streaks ended on Oct. 15, with “corer.”
Connections
The most played puzzle took place on April 1, while the most difficult puzzle was June 20. The most shared puzzle happened on Jan. 11, and “bolt,” “nail,” “nut,” “screw” was the most common mistake.
Spelling Bee
Solvers reached Genius or higher 154 million times in 2024. The longest pangram was Nationalization on Jan. 8, and there were 535 pangrams this year. Forty-six solvers found every pangram in 2024.
CORRECTION: (Jan. 2, 2024, 3:20 p.m.): An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Strands Plays. It is 1.3 billion, not 1.1. million.