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Words With Friends is chasing Wordle’s success with new daily puzzle games

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The four new Words with Friends games: Mini Crosswords, Word Wheel, Word Search, and Guess word
Zynga

Words With Friends is expanding. What was once just a popular way to play unofficial multiplayer Scrabble on mobile has now become a larger hub for other daily word games.

Mobile development juggernaut Zynga announced that it’s added four games to the app. Mini Crosswords gives you a new crossword to complete every day and a leaderboard for competing against other players. Word Wheel is an anagram game where players connect letters in a wheel to form words. Word Search provides a new puzzle theme each day. Finally, Guess Word is like Wordle, with players having to guess a word in six tries.

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“Words With Friends has always been about connecting players through friendly competition,” said Yaron Leyvand, executive vice president of mobile games, in a press release. “Our players asked if they could do even more, so we’ve added a whole new layer of personally fulfilling solo minigames where you can disconnect from the world and play word games, with or without friends.”

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Before there was Wordle, there was Words With Friends. It launched in 2009, and like other Zynga games at the time, it found success through letting users connect with friends through Facebook. It’s since become one of the most well-known online multiplayer mobile games. There isn’t a chat function, but players can message offline and compete with friends and random strangers. By 2021, the app was a huge partof Zynga’s reported $616 million in Take-Two revenue that quarter.

With this move, Words With Friends is on track to compete with apps like Puzzmo and NYT Games, which bundle together games into one hub that updates daily. There has been a lot of growth in this area, with The New York Times in particular expanding its game offerings with Strands and Connections over the past couple years.

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Carli Velocci
Carli Velocci
Contributor, Games
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
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