The best daily math games are Nerdle, Mathler, KenKen, Sudoku, Kakuro, the Set daily puzzle and Halfsies, which between them cover arithmetic, logic, pattern spotting and judging area by eye in about five minutes each.
Seven daily puzzles for people who would rather add than anagram.
Most daily games are word games. If you think in numbers and shapes, the usual list of five-letter guesses does not do much for you. The good news is that there is a daily puzzle for nearly every kind of math thinking.
Here are seven worth trying, and what each one really tests.
| Game | What you do | Math skill | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nerdle | Guess a hidden equation in 6 tries | Arithmetic, deduction | 3 to 5 min |
| Mathler | Find the calculation that hits a target | Order of operations | 3 to 5 min |
| KenKen | Fill a grid using cage totals | Arithmetic plus logic | 5 to 15 min |
| Sudoku | Fill a 9x9 grid with 1 to 9 | Pure logic | 5 to 20 min |
| Kakuro | Fill runs of digits to match sums | Addition, combinations | 10 to 20 min |
| Set daily puzzle | Find every set of 3 cards | Pattern spotting | 3 to 10 min |
| Halfsies | Cut 3 objects exactly in half by eye | Geometry, area estimation | 1 to 2 min |
Nerdle is the closest thing to Wordle with numbers. The answer is a full equation that fills eight tiles, such as 12+35=47. You get six guesses. After each one, tiles turn green for the right symbol in the right spot, purple for the right symbol in the wrong spot, and black for a symbol that is not in the answer.
Every guess has to be a true equation, which is the clever part. You cannot just throw digits at it.
Mathler flips Nerdle around. It shows you the answer first, say 73, and you have six guesses to find the exact calculation that makes it. Tiles are colored the same way.
Because multiplication and division are done before addition and subtraction, this one drills order of operations. 3+4*5 is 23, not 35. If that made you pause, Mathler is the right game for you.
KenKen was invented in 2004 by Tetsuya Miyamoto, a Japanese math teacher who wanted a puzzle that trained arithmetic without feeling like homework. The grid is split into outlined groups of cells called cages. Each cage shows a target number and an operation. A cage marked "12x" must hold digits that multiply to 12.
The other rule comes from Sudoku: no digit repeats in any row or column.
Sudoku uses numbers but needs no arithmetic at all. You fill a 9x9 grid so every row, every column and every 3x3 box holds the digits 1 to 9 once each.
It still belongs on a math list because it is logic in its purest form. Every step is a small proof: this cell cannot be a 4, so that one must be.
Kakuro looks like a crossword where the clues are sums. Each run of white cells must add up to the number at its start, using the digits 1 to 9 with no repeats inside the run.
The trick is learning which sums have only one possible set of digits. A few to memorize:
Spot those first and the rest of the grid starts to fall.
Set is a card game with 81 cards. Each card has four features: number, shape, shading and color. Each feature comes in three versions. A "set" is three cards where every feature is either all the same or all different across the three.
The daily puzzle lays out 12 cards and asks you to find every set hiding in them. There is no arithmetic, but it is real math. The game is a favorite of mathematicians because the rules map neatly onto geometry and combinatorics.
Halfsies is the geometry pick. Each day you get three hand-drawn objects with a Wild West theme. You draw one cut across each, trying to split it exactly in half. Then a scale weighs both pieces.
The scoring is a single ratio. For each cut, your score is the lighter half divided by the heavier half, times 100. A dead-even cut scores 100. Three cuts a day makes 300 the best possible total.
The math is in what "half" means. Weight follows the drawn area of the object. A long thin handle adds very little, while a wide body adds a lot.
It is also the quickest game on this list. Three cuts take a minute or two. It is free on iPhone, Android and in your browser, and if you miss a day, free players can replay the last 7 days.
It depends on the skill you want. Nerdle is the best pick for arithmetic, Sudoku for pure logic, KenKen for a mix of both, and Halfsies for geometry and estimating area by eye.
Yes. Nerdle is the best-known one. You guess a hidden eight-tile equation in six tries, with colored tiles as hints. Mathler is similar but tells you the target number up front.
Halfsies is the quickest on this list. It is three cuts a day and takes a minute or two. Nerdle and Mathler usually take three to five minutes.
Each cut scores the lighter half divided by the heavier half, times 100. There are three cuts a day, so the top score is 300.
Done with your sums for the day? See if your eye can find the middle.