The 15 best games like Connections
Connections is one puzzle a day. This is fifteen.
Curated by Craig Dugas · 
Solved Connections in three, or blew all four lives, either way you want another one.
These games all run on grouping and pattern recognition, but each one bends it somewhere different: words sorted into overlapping Venn diagrams, movie trivia intersecting on a 3x3 board, a 45-group marathon. Free, browser-based, no ad wall between you and the puzzle, and every one made by someone who clearly cared about it.
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Full Circle
Instead of dropping words into four isolated buckets, Full Circle forces you to build a continuous chain. You still have to spot the hidden categories, but here the words must be arranged in a perfect ring where every neighbor shares a relationship, all leading up to a final "Omnigram" that ties the entire board together.
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Anything Grid
Fill a 3x3 grid by entering one answer per cell that matches both its row and column categories, aiming for obscure picks to score lowest.
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Vennections
Group words into 3 themes and guess the one word that connects all 3 categories in the Venn diagram.
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The Loop
Rearrange images in a circular pattern so that each adjacent pair connects through wordplay, visual similarity, idioms, or cultural references.
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Connectrade
If you love the 4x4 grid of Connections but want to test your world knowledge instead of wordplay, Connectrade is the perfect pivot. It trades linguistic tricks for global economics, challenging you to group four real-world export products (like refined copper or fish oil) to their correct country of origin before you run out of lives.
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4 × 3
A new game by Hank Green. Organize the grid into four thematic groups of three words each, one word is reused in every group.
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Circuits
This game zeroes in on the "fill in the blank" style of wordplay often found in the thought exercise that Connections brings, but adds a strict spatial twist. Instead of grouping, Circuits gives you a web of disconnected terms and asks you to deduce the exact compound words that can successfully bridge multiple clues together in the direction of the arrows.
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45 by 45 Connections
If the standard daily grid leaves you wanting more after three minutes, 45 by 45 Connections turns the format into a marathon. Instead of a tidy 4x4 box, you are staring down a massive, scrollable board where you have to untangle 45 different hidden categories. It saves your progress, transforming the quick daily sprint into a deeply satisfying, long-form puzzle you can chip away at all week, month, or year.
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Connections
It’s impossible to build a list like this without a direct shout-out to the New York Times daily puzzle that started the absolute craze. You likely already know the drill: 16 words, four mystery categories, and four mistakes before you're locked out. It remains the gold standard for blending trivia, logic, and wordplay into a perfect daily ritual, and serves as the baseline for every other game on this list.
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WrestlePlay Connections
If you find standard wordplay categories a bit too broad, this hyper-niche variant swaps vocabulary for the pro wrestling. The mechanics are exactly the same: find four groups of four, but your clues are a board of 16 wrestlers. The hidden links rely entirely on your deep-cut knowledge of specific championships, historic rivalries, and classic 90s factions.
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Word Grid
If Connections asks you to find the hidden rule for a group of words, Word Grid gives you the rules and asks you to supply the word. It takes the familiar categorization mechanic and maps it onto a 3x3 grid, where every square forces you to brainstorm a single word that perfectly satisfies two overlapping constraints at once. The catch? You are scored on rarity, so the most obvious answer is usually the worst one to play.
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Cinematrix
Swapping vocabulary for cinephile trivia, Cinematrix applies the concept of intersecting categories to a beautiful 3x3 movie board. Instead of sorting a pre-made list of words, you have to dig into your own memory to find the exact film that bridges the gap between a specific actor, director, or genre on the row and column. Getting the movie poster to pop up on a perfectly guessed square is incredibly satisfying.
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Telematrix
If you love the intersecting category logic of Cinematrix but your binge-watching habits lean heavily toward television, Telematrix is your exact game. It uses the same polished 3x3 grid format, but challenges you to find the TV shows that perfectly overlap two distinct cast or genre clues. It drops twice a week, making it a great group activity to tackle with friends who know their TV trivia.
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GeoGrid
Taking the intersecting category format global, GeoGrid replaces wordplay and pop culture with cartography. You are presented with a 3x3 grid of geographical constraints, and you must name the exact country that satisfies both the row and column rules. Because you can't reuse answers, placing a country becomes a highly strategic, map-based game of process of elimination.
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GeoConnections
If you love the standard 16-word grid but want to swap linguistic trickery for worldly knowledge, GeoConnections is your exact match. It uses the classic "four groups of four" format, but your clues are a tangled mix of global landmarks, regional cuisines, and country codes. It even features an Infinity Mode, letting you untangle the board and test your geography without the stress of a four-mistake limit.
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Categories
Sometimes you don't want a massive mechanical twist; you just want a second helping of the exact same puzzle. Categories delivers a pure, unadulterated grouping experience. It hands you 16 seemingly random words, four hidden themes, and plenty of intentional red herrings designed to overlap, making it the perfect chaser for when you finish your morning grid and aren't quite ready to close the tab.
