The New York Times has found a way to make educational games fun for millions of users. With eight billion games played in 2023, the company has found large success in its games. Naturally, some of those plays come from students and staff looking for fun games to play throughout the day.
Senior Audri Brizendine plays the New York Times games before school to get her ready for the day.
“I think it’s a good way to start my day. And it warms up my brain for school,” Brizendine said.
Junior Hayden Horn agrees that it’s a good way to start the day and wake himself up.
“It’s just enough of a challenge because usually I do them in the morning and it’s a nice way to wake up,” Horn said
For AV Fundamentals teacher Laurie Folsom, playing the New York Times games has become part of her daily routine.
“If I’m winding down at the end of the day, I hop on there and make sure that I’ve done the ones that I like, it’s a nice way of relaxing after a long day,” Folsom.
Senior Madi Lehr has also found playing the New York Times games has become part of her routine, playing it every morning.
“[I play] during class a lot of the time when we have free time, or I get there early and we’re just doing nothing, I play during the seminar. Lehr said. “Sometimes I play in the car, just whenever I have free time.”
Lehr often competes against other people in the New York Times games, adding a new way to enjoy them.
“Especially in the summer, my mom would always do the New York Times games at the same time as me, we would have to get everything done before the day was over,” Lehr said.
Brizendine got started playing the New York Times games by playing The Mini, a smaller version of the regular crossword, and then moved on to the other games.
“I’ve always been into crosswords so then I started just doing The Mini and I used to have a TikTok that I would post my crosswords on and then it got kind of viral. I deleted it so people wouldn’t find it,” Brizendine said.
Folsom started playing the games by watching so many of her students play during her class.
“Madi Lehr was playing it, and so I started playing,” Folsom said. “She was playing Wordle, and then I had some kids in AV Fundamentals who were playing it too. Once I understood the concept, it was fun.”
Like Folsom and many others, Horn hears about the New York Times games through word of mouth.
“My grandma told me about Wordle, and so I started playing it with her, and then I realized it wasn’t blocked on the computer. So I [decided] I’d play it [in school],” Horn said.
For Lehr, like many students, the enjoyment of the New York Times games comes from the fact that they aren’t blocked on students’ computers. Blocking games has led students to search for ways to play games that aren’t blocked on students’ computers.
“Things on our computers are blocked, so I play the New York Times games because they blocked Solitaire, which was my favorite,” Lehr said.
Folsom finds that the easyness of the games to understand and play makes them so enjoyable.
“I am horrible at first-person shooter games and driving games, I’m horrible at games like that and [The New York Times games] are ones I’m good at, Like most people I enjoy things I’m good at,” Folsom said.
