Weekly Recap

During the week of May 18 – May 24, 2026, players logged 581 game sessions across the daily Hot & Cold challenges, and 467 of those runs ended with the secret word found — an average daily solve rate of 78%. Successful solvers needed about 25.1 guesses on average, while 114 sessions ended with the answer revealed instead.

The toughest puzzle landed on Sat, May 23, where only 50% of players tracked down the secret word after roughly 26.4 guesses on average. At the other end of the spectrum, Fri, May 22 was the friendliest day of the week: 95% of players got there in about 20.5 guesses.

Popular opening guesses this week included banana, animal, food and technology — 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.