Buzz
Originally a platform for job hunting, networking, and resume sharing, LinkedIn has evolved into an AI-driven service. Now, following in the footsteps of The New York Times, it has introduced three daily puzzle games inspired by Wordle. LinkedIn surely hopes these games will bring you back to the site more frequently.
The new games, Pinpoint, Crossclimb, and Queens, are available today on the LinkedIn mobile app and website. They are listed under the My Network section, which might seem a bit odd. Alternatively, you can head to this link or type linkedin.com/games directly into your browser.
Just like Wordle, you can play each of these games once a day. LinkedIn tracks your scores, streaks, and position on the leaderboard, while also offering the chance to compete with your connections by sharing your results.
Pinpoint challenges you to make connections. With each incorrect guess, new clues are revealed, and your mission is to identify the common link among them in as few attempts as possible. If all clues are shown and you still can't guess the answer, you lose the game.
Crossclimb blends crossword puzzles and trivia into a single challenge. You’ll start with a set of brief definitions for a list of words. After you guess each word, your next task is to reorder them from top to bottom, ensuring that only one letter changes at a time. To complete the puzzle, you’ll be given a final clue to identify the top and bottom words. It’s a more complex puzzle than usual for a daily game, so it’s best to dive in and learn as you go.
Queens is similar to Sudoku, but instead of numbers, you place crowns. The challenge is to position a crown in each row, column, and color-coded section without any overlaps or adjacent crowns. It’s one of the simpler puzzles here, at least in terms of rules, but LinkedIn has surprisingly given it the most detailed tutorial of the lot.
Although it might seem strange for LinkedIn to dive into gaming, with ad revenue dropping and other social platforms pushing to keep users engaged, creating games is turning out to be a smart way to keep people hooked. Axios reports that The New York Times saw over four billion plays of Wordle last year alone, so it’s easy to see why LinkedIn would want a slice of that action.
