On a mean day, tens of thousands and thousands of individuals go to The New York Instances Video games part to unravel the most recent crossword puzzle, hold their Wordle streak alive, or see if they will work out the thriller of that day’s Connections puzzle. Two-thirds of the positioning’s weekly guests play two or extra video games. Half play 4 or extra.
Regardless of that, or maybe due to it, The Instances solely often releases new recreation choices—usually one per 12 months. In order that makes Monday’s launch of Pips, the most recent everlasting addition to the gathering particularly important. It’s not solely new, it’s a brand new form of puzzle, eschewing wordplay for logic. And if the reactions to the beta check (which launched in Canada in April)—and the outcry when The Instances took the sport offline for closing sharpening—are any indication, the corporate might need discovered its subsequent massive hit.
Reddit customers have been mourning its absence for over a month, debating whether or not the sport would return and when. Opinions of the beta had been glowing, calling it “an excellent fusion of traditional gaming components and trendy puzzle design.”
“We needed to do one thing that was unique and recent, however nonetheless acquainted,” says Jonathan Knight, senior vice chairman and head of video games at The New York Instances.
Pips was first proposed final 12 months and the workforce has been engaged on it all through 2025. It’s a puzzle-based tackle dominoes that lets customers select between three issue ranges. Every recreation board has a sequence of circumstances (as an example, in some areas, you will need to have the identical variety of pips, the dots on a domino, in every field, whereas in others, the pips should add as much as a sure quantity). Like sudoku, it’s about stability. You need to place your dominoes in a sample that satisfies all the totally different necessities.
Simple puzzles in Pips have gamers putting 4 or 5 dominoes. Laborious ones may have as much as 16. There are not any closing dates. If you happen to get the puzzle mistaken, you may return and proceed engaged on it. And the sport will present you the areas it is advisable appropriate.
“It’s very laborious in life to complete something,” says Ian Livengood, puzzle editor of Pips. “So there’s one thing very satisfying about having the ability to end [this game].”
[Image: The New York Times]
Hooking the participant
In a world the place it’s more and more troublesome to seize folks’s consideration, The Instances has had unbelievable success. Final 12 months, its puzzles had been performed 11.1 billion instances. Of that quantity, almost half was centered on Wordle, which was performed 5.3 billion instances in 2024. (Each minute, the corporate says, greater than 2,000 folks share their Wordle rating.) Connections, launched in 2023, was performed 3.3 billion instances.
The Video games workforce says it doesn’t deal with these numbers, however it does problem itself to create titles that draw folks again many times. Most concepts don’t make the reduce.
A number of dozen ideas are pitched annually, from all corners of the corporate through hackathons and different initiatives. Nearly all of these ideas don’t get too far. Some, like Zorse (a phrase-guessing recreation launched final 12 months) get so far as public beta exams earlier than they’re rejected. It comes down, typically, to the elusive enjoyable issue.
“We focus very a lot first on the mechanics and discovering the enjoyable,” says Knight.
With Pips, he says, there weren’t plenty of main adjustments from the sport’s idea to its closing execution. A lot of the evolution was in how the sport visually communicated the necessities of the puzzle to the participant.
Livengood says the hook for Pips in addition to different Instances video games is their degree of visible readability. They’re not designed to overwhelm you. You’ll be able to take a look at the video games and usually work out what you’re presupposed to do in a really quick period of time.
Whereas video games like Sweet Crush use AI to create and optimize ranges, puzzles at The New York Instances, whether or not in Pips, Wordle, or another recreation, are handcrafted. “There’s all the time an individual behind the sport,” Livengood says. “And more and more, with AI and computer-generated algorithms, that feels virtually refreshing. It’s comforting figuring out there’s an individual behind it.”
A less-is-more method additionally helps draw folks again in. Instances video games are designed to solely take a couple of minutes, then you definately’re free (and inspired) to go about your day.
“It suits into your life,” says Knight. “We’re not making an attempt to get you to remain in our app 24 hours a day. We’re not nagging you always. A wholesome, time well-spent cadence has been what makes us so profitable.”
Pips might get folks to stay round a bit longer, although. With three attainable each day puzzles, individuals who get hooked might choose to play greater than as soon as per day. Pips can be the primary new recreation from the Instances workforce that can launch concurrently on each the online and on the app. (Historically, video games would launch on one first, then the opposite months later.)
“That represents us getting stronger and higher at what we’re doing,” says Knight.
