The Athletic and NYT Games have launched Strands: Sports Edition, a free daily word search built around sports. The first puzzle went live on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, and a new one arrives every day at midnight local time.
If you already play NYT Strands, the rules will feel familiar. The difference is the subject: every puzzle is built around a sports theme, so the hidden words come from the world of games, athletes, and competition.
How the Game Works
- The grid. Each puzzle is a 6x8 grid of letters, six across and eight down. Your job is to find every theme word hidden in it.
- Finding words. Select letters one after another to spell a word. Letters connect in any direction, including diagonally, and a word can bend and change direction as it goes. Every letter on the board belongs to exactly one answer, so a finished grid has no leftovers.
- The theme. Each puzzle comes with a short theme prompt that hints at what ties the answers together.
- The spangram. One special answer, the spangram, sums up the theme and stretches across the board, touching two opposite sides. The game marks it in its own color when you find it.
- Hints. Real words that are not part of the theme still help. Every three non-theme words you find, each at least four letters long, earn a hint that highlights the letters of one theme word.
- A new puzzle every day. The puzzle resets at midnight in your local time zone.
Where to Play
Strands: Sports Edition is free to play on the web at theathletic.com/strands-sports-edition, which opens the game in The Athletic's section of nytimes.com, and in The Athletic app.
The first puzzle, No. 1, is by Oskar Garcia and edited by Zack Pierce. The Athletic says Zack Pierce, Mark Cooper and Oskar Garcia write the game.
How It Compares With NYT Strands
The original Strands sits in the NYT Games lineup and can draw its themes from anywhere. Strands: Sports Edition keeps the same mechanics but sticks to sports. It joins Connections: Sports Edition, the sports take on Connections that The Athletic already runs.
Tips for Your First Solve
- Read the theme prompt as wordplay as well as a literal description.
- Start from uncommon letters such as J, K, or Z. Only a few words can pass through them, which narrows where an answer can run.
- Hunt for the spangram early. Because it reaches from one side of the board to the other, finding it splits the grid and makes the remaining words easier to trace.
- Do not ignore non-theme words. Collecting three of them is the quickest route to a hint when you are stuck.
Stuck on today's board? Technobezz has daily hints and answers for Strands: Sports Edition, along with NYT Strands, Connections: Sports Edition, and Wordle.
