Games like Wordle, but not words

Wordle made the daily puzzle a ritual: one game a day, the same for everyone, and a grid of emojis to share. If you love the format but want a break from letters, these daily games swap words for pictures, maps or numbers.

Picture and movie puzzles

Unvil

A real photo hides under a mosaic of tiles. You guess words: the closer they are to what the picture shows, the hotter they are and the more tiles fall. A visual take on the “temperature” idea of Semantle, in six languages.

Framed

Guess the movie from up to six frames, revealed one by one after each wrong guess.

Picxle

A blurred photo gets sharper with every wrong guess until you name it.

Geography puzzles

Worldle

Identify a country from its outline; each guess tells you the distance and direction to the answer.

Globle

Find the mystery country on a globe; each guess is coloured by how close it is.

Number puzzles

Nerdle

Wordle for maths: guess a hidden equation in six tries, with the same green, purple and black hints.

Why these games work

They take a few minutes, need no account, and give everyone the same puzzle, so comparing results with friends is half the fun. Pictures and maps also train different skills than words: observation, general knowledge and spatial reasoning.

Where to start

For a visual brain teaser, try Unvil or Framed. For geography, Worldle and Globle. For numbers, Nerdle. Most take under five minutes, so you can easily build a small daily routine.