The Daily Countdown Puzzle is live

I have just released a new Daily Countdown Puzzle.

It is a once-a-day game with a letters round, a numbers round, and a conundrum. It went live today, 14 July 2026, and I have backfilled the two previous days as well, so you can already play the puzzles for 12 and 13 July if you want a short archive to start with.

What is included

Each day has:

• a letters round where you enter the longest word you can find
• a numbers round where you build your working step by step from the available tiles
• a conundrum round with the usual nine-letter scramble
• a results page with your points for each round and your total score
• links from the results page into the solvers, so you can look for answers afterwards

In the numbers round, click two tiles and an operation to make a new tile, then use that result in later steps if you need it. The game keeps your best attempt so far, tells you how far away it is from the target, and lets you move on whenever you are ready.

The conundrum has a bit more celebration when you get it right. If you solve it, the game takes you through to the results page and shows the word you found.

Results and old puzzles

There is a calendar selector for daily puzzles. If you have already attempted a day, opening that day takes you to your results. If you have not attempted it yet, it starts you at the letters round.

The results page also shows a short list of recent days, so you can quickly jump back to the last few puzzles and see how you did.

If you want to wipe today's attempt and try again, there is a Start over button on the results page.

Sharing

You can share either your score or your full answers.

Score shares are safe to open: they show the name and score, then invite the other person to play the same puzzle and see if they can beat it.

Answer shares are treated as spoilers. If someone opens an answer-share link before they have solved that day's puzzle, they get a warning and can choose to play the puzzle first. Once they have already got results for that date, the shared answers can be shown straight away.

Share links remember the exact puzzle date, so a link for today's puzzle still points at today's puzzle tomorrow.

Please try it

Go and play the Daily Countdown Puzzle.

This is new, so I am especially interested in rough edges: confusing scoring, awkward numbers-game controls, bad mobile layout, unclear sharing behaviour, or anything that makes the daily game less fun than it should be. You can send feedback through the contact page or fill in the short survey after you have tried it.