Connections players find us all the time, usually from a friend who said "you'd like this one." They're right more often than not. Both are one small puzzle a day, the same for everybody, and both reward the player who sees past what's sitting in plain view. The difference fits in a sentence: Connections asks you to sort sixteen words someone else chose, and OUTLIER asks you to pull your own words out of 25 letters, with the rarest one winning.
The short version
Neither one replaces the other. They work the same instinct, refusing the obvious answer, from opposite ends.
(Connections is a New York Times game. OUTLIER isn't affiliated with the Times, we just share a lot of players.)
No answer key, only better answers
A Connections grid has exactly one solution. Somebody built it, hid four categories in it, and your job is to reverse-engineer their thinking. When you get it, you get it. When you don't, the reveal shows you what they meant.
OUTLIER has no setter's answer to find. The grid is full of real words and every one of them counts. What separates a good day from a great one is how rare your words are: each has a rarity from 0 to 100, set by how often it turns up in English, and the rarer it is the more it pays.
So the purple-group feeling, that jolt when the weird link finally shows itself, happens on your terms. You stare at the letters, the everyday words come first, and then something odd surfaces: a fish, a fabric, a word from a chemistry class you forgot you took. Nobody hid it there for you. You found it anyway, and it pays far more than the obvious word did.
Mistakes that don't end your day
Connections runs on a short fuse. Burn your mistakes and the puzzle closes, which is half the tension and half the heartbreak.
OUTLIER's pressure comes from a different place. You get ten guesses, and a word that's too short doesn't use one. A wrong hunch costs you nothing but a second look. What costs you is spending a slot on something plain when a stranger word was sitting two letters over.
That turns every guess into a small bet. Take the safe Rare now, or hold out for the Legendary word you half remember? Letters don't have to touch and you can use each one as often as it appears in the grid, so the board is wider than it looks. Most days it's about five minutes from first glance to lock-in.
Everyone gets the same letters
You already know the best part of a shared daily puzzle: the group chat afterwards. OUTLIER has that, with a scoreboard behind it. Every player on Earth gets the same 25 letters, a new grid drops at noon ET, and when you lock in you see your score and your rank on today's worldwide board.
Comparing gets more interesting, too. In Connections, two people who both solved it have the same answer. In OUTLIER, two people on the same board can have completely different lists, and the one with the stranger words wins. Expect a lot of "wait, that's a word?"
Around the daily board there are streaks, Seasons and all-time boards, plus a crown next to your name for a day if you finish first on any of seven boards.
A special share
Then it gets loud: Live
Connections is a quiet solve. Outlier Live is the opposite: one board, real people playing it at the same moment, timed rounds, and the rarest word takes each round. When the round closes, everyone's words come up side by side.
If your Connections habit already lives in a group chat, Groups is the bit you'll want first.
What players tell us
Players write in with bug reports, missing words and, now and then, something kind. A few of the kind ones, names left off.
I love this game and I play with many friends. Keep up the good work!
A Keeper
This has been a welcome addition to my day.
A Keeper
My favorite game!
A Keeper
What Connections fans love about OUTLIER
Grouping-puzzle regulars who stick around tend to mention the same things.
- Your eye for the odd one out pays in pointsThe skill that spots a sneaky category is the same one that spots a rare word hiding behind an easy one.
- A bad start doesn't sink youNo mistake counter. Ten guesses, short words cost nothing, and you finish when you choose to lock in.
- It's never just solved or notA score out of 1,000 means a good day and a great day look different, and you can beat yesterday.
- Your group gets a scoreboardSame board for everyone, a worldwide rank, and Groups for the friends you already compare with.
- Free, with no adsEvery daily is free forever: the word board, Today's Ten and Outlier Live Daily.
Which one should you play?
Both. Connections is a lock to pick: one solution, and the thrill of finding it. OUTLIER is a dig with no bottom: endless right answers, and the thrill of finding a better one than anybody else. Solve the grid with your morning tea, then come find a word nobody else saw.
Today's letters are already up. Ten guesses, and the strangest real word wins.
Free, no ads, about five minutes. A new board drops at noon ET.
Want more grouping puzzles too? Read our guide to games like Connections.