Weekly Recap

During the week of Jul 6 – Jul 12, 2026, players logged 441 game sessions across the daily Hot & Cold challenges, and 250 of those runs ended with the secret word found — an average daily solve rate of 56%. Successful solvers needed about 30.4 guesses on average, while 191 sessions ended with the answer revealed instead.

The toughest puzzle landed on Tue, Jul 7, where only 48% of players tracked down the secret word after roughly 35.5 guesses on average. At the other end of the spectrum, Fri, Jul 10 was the friendliest day of the week: 64% of players got there in about 30.5 guesses.

Popular opening guesses this week included animal, banana, 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.