Weekly Recap

During the week of May 4 – May 10, 2026, players logged 1074 game sessions across the daily Hot & Cold challenges, and 950 of those runs ended with the secret word found — an average daily solve rate of 88%. Successful solvers needed about 20.3 guesses on average, while 124 sessions ended with the answer revealed instead.

The toughest puzzle landed on Sun, May 10, where only 82% of players tracked down the secret word after roughly 22.9 guesses on average. At the other end of the spectrum, Wed, May 6 was the friendliest day of the week: 94% of players got there in about 16.8 guesses.

Popular opening guesses this week included banana, animal, food and place — broad category words remain the community's favorite way to scan for the right semantic neighborhood before narrowing in.

Missed a day? Every challenge from this week can still be replayed from the archive. And if your solve rate dipped, the starting-words guide covers how to open more efficiently.