LinkedIn Now Has Three ‘Wordle’ Style Puzzle Games for Some Reason
(The reason is “engagement.”)
Once a simple social network for posting resumes and job listings and networking with peers, then a blog platform, and more recently an AI service, LinkedIn is now following in the footsteps of The New York Times in launching three new Wordle style daily puzzle games, which it no doubt fervently hopes will keep you coming back to the site at least that often.
Pinpoint, Crossclimb, and Queens launched today in the LinkedIn mobile app and on its website. The games are somewhat unintuitively listed under the My Network section on both mobile and desktop. (Alternatively, just click this link or type linkedin.com/games into your browser.)
Like Wordle, each game can be played once per day, with LinkedIn keeping track of your scores, streaks, and leaderboard positions along the way. You can also get competitive with your network by sharing your scores with your connections.
Pinpoint is about drawing connections. The game will reveal new clues with each wrong guess, and your goal is to find the common thread in each of the clues in as few guesses as possible. If all clues have been revealed and you still can’t guess the answer, you lose.
Crossclimb is like a mix between crossword puzzles and trivia. The game will first give brief definitions for a series of words. Once you’ve guessed each word, it’ll be your job to rearrange them from top to bottom so that only one letter changes at a time. Then, you’ll be given one final clue to find the top and bottom words in the sequence. It’s a bit on the complicated side for a “daily check in” puzzle game, so it’s best to learn through playing.
Queens is like Sodoku, but with crowns instead of numbers. Your goal is to place a crown in each row, column, and colored section without overlapping or having adjacent crowns. It’s possibly the simplest puzzle here, at least in terms of its rules, but for some reason, LinkedIn has seen fit to give it the longest tutorial of the bunch.
Games might seem an odd fit for LinkedIn, but as ad revenue disappears and other social media websites do their best to keep users on their own platforms, developing games is proving to be a great way to make “sticky” content and keep engagement numbers high. According to Axios, The New York Times accrued over four billion plays last year on Wordle alone, so you can hardly fault LinkedIn for reaching for a piece of that pie.