Original descriptive analysis · Updated with verified puzzles
Spangram lengths and theme-word counts, calculated from 80 individually verified puzzles. Not a player-difficulty ranking.
We analyzed every currently available verified record in the Strands Guide archive, from through (latest game #949). Missing dates outside this verified sample are not assumed to have any particular characteristics.
Spangrams range from 6 to 16 letters in this sample. These are descriptive measurements, not a measure of how hard a game is for a person.
See the spangram solving guide for practical help or open the latest puzzle for progressive hints.
The figure counts the number of verified puzzles whose spangram has each letter length. Longer is not necessarily more difficult.
Theme words exclude the one spangram. These counts describe the board composition, not player completion time.
Each row is derived deterministically from a source-verified daily puzzle: one record per date, with its public puzzle number, number of non-spangram theme words, and letters in the spangram. Records are validated for board coverage and answer consistency before publishing. No scraped popularity data, estimated player completion times or subjective difficulty scores are included.
Download the date-level CSV (four columns) to check the calculations. For the puzzle behind any row, use the dated archive. The source puzzle is published by The New York Times; this aggregate analysis is independently produced by Strands Guide and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NYT.
Suggested citation: Strands Guide, “NYT Strands puzzle statistics”, https://strandsguide.com/research/strands-statistics/ (sample through 2026-10-08).
We update this study automatically as new verified puzzles enter the permanent archive; the sample size and summary change only when the validated records change.