‘Wordle’ Gets A Math Makeover With Latest New York Times Game, ‘Digits’

Those looking for a switch up to the daily Wordle fix, or who simply aren’t too good at letters, now’s your chance. The New York Times recently released a brand-new game for those adept at math: Digits.

According to Mashable, the latest brain teaser was created by the newspaper’s in-house Games team and is currently available to the public for beta testing. However, don’t get too attached, because it may not stay up permanently.

The publication will be making the game free-to-play online for just a week, before taking it down from the site to evaluate the popularity and success of the offering. If it performs well, it could soon appear alongside Wordle as a daily addition to the New York Times’ game collection.

Initial plans for Digits were formulated in late 2021 after the idea was floated during a games jam meeting. It appears the concept was based on two game shows revolving around numerals, including France’s Des Chiffres et des Lettres and the British program Countdown.

So how exactly does Digits work? Players will be given six different numbers, with which they will add, subtract, multiply, or divide by one another to get a result as close to the correct answer as possible. Each numeral can only be used once; after which, it’ll disappear.

Fortunately, as this sounds like a head-scratcher, Digits differs from Wordle in the fact it has an ‘undo’ button, so players can retrace their steps and start over if the equations don’t work out. Plus, each puzzle can be replayed as many times as you want, with up to five available per day.

Instead of simply “correct” or “wrong,” users are rated via stars, ranging from one to three depending on how close the answer is to the correct result. A number within 25 places will achieve one star, two stars for within 10 places, and three stars for the actual number.

Of course—just like its predecessor—Digits allows one to show off their results on social media, so everyone will know just who the greatest math genius is. Players will have to complete all five puzzles of the day to post their scores.

If you enjoy math-based puzzles, then you might also want to try out Sumplete, a Sudoku-inspired game invented by ChatGPT.

[via Mashable and GameSpot, images via New York Times]