Weekly Recap

During the week of Jul 13 – Jul 19, 2026, players logged 392 game sessions across the daily Hot & Cold challenges, and 280 of those runs ended with the secret word found — an average daily solve rate of 71%. Successful solvers needed about 28.2 guesses on average, while 112 sessions ended with the answer revealed instead.

The toughest puzzle landed on Mon, Jul 13, where only 57% of players tracked down the secret word after roughly 35.6 guesses on average. At the other end of the spectrum, Sat, Jul 18 was the friendliest day of the week: 84% of players got there in about 22.4 guesses.

Popular opening guesses this week included animal, banana, 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.