It seems like the whole world has been playing Wordle lately. This simple daily word game is a fun way to stimulate the mind and get your mental gears turning for a few minutes every day. However, the one-puzzle-per-day format of Wordle can leave you wanting more once you’ve solved it.
Your mind is like a muscle, and when you play brain games, you work that muscle out, and it becomes stronger. That’s why it’s great to play memory games for dementia. Just a few mind exercises a day have the potential to delay memory loss and lessen the decline in cognitive function associated with dementia.
Fortunately, there are plenty of different brain games out there similar to Wordle, and they’re usually only a few clicks of a button away. Because there are so many to choose from, we’ve compiled this list of our favorites to give you a place to start.
Our Favorite Brain Games
Here’s our list of the best games you can play to challenge yourself and strengthen your mind. We’ve included games from all kinds of platforms to ensure that you’ll have access to at least some of them.
New York Times Crossword App
Crosswords are one of the original brain games, and while you can easily access them in books and newspapers, this app from the New York Times makes it easier than ever to enjoy these challenging word games.
Receive a brand-new crossword and mini crossword every day, and gain access to a massive backlog of previous crosswords, making it highly unlikely that you’ll ever run out of brain games.
This app also includes a game called Spelling Bee, which challenges you daily to make as many words as you can with a set of seven letters. Can you come up with enough words to be a Spelling Bee Genius?
Games for the Brain
If you want a whole collection of both familiar and new brain puzzles, then check out GamesfortheBrain.com. They’ve got sudoku, Chinese checkers, Mastermind, Minesweeper, checkers, chess, trivia, and much more- and it’s all free!
They even offer games that can be played with a partner, so you and a friend can sharpen your minds together. For simple but effective memory games involving famous works of art, take a look at Masterpieces and Mastercards.
Wheel of Fortune for Console
Wheel of Fortune is the long-running game show that was a likely inspiration to Wordle. We bet you’ve heard of it, but just in case you haven’t: it’s a word game where you’re asked to fill in the blanks of an unknown phrase one letter at a time. Spin the wheel to determine your potential prize, then guess a letter to see if you’ve won.
This version of the classic game show is available for Playstation 4, Xbox 1, and Nintendo Switch, but there’s also a similar app. It puts you up against friends or the computer to try to see who can guess the phrase the fastest. This brain game is a great way to sharpen your mind and enjoy a little competition at the same time.
Lumosity
Lumosity has an array of different games designed to improve your memory and challenge your mind. It’s perhaps the most popular brain game app around, and it’s totally free.
You can download it on your phone or simply jump online and use their website to access a variety of memory, math, and attention games that aren’t just effective but also a lot of fun.
One of the best things about Lumosity is that it keeps track of your scores so you can see the progress you’re making on your journey to hone your mind and become a memory master. Log on and take your free fit test, then get started on your ten-minute daily brain workout.
Words with Friends
This popular phone app might look a little familiar to you, and that’s because it’s really just a digital game of Scrabble.
The thing is that you’re able to challenge people from all over the planet at any time on Words with Friends instead of waiting until you’ve got some willing participants, a game board, and a free table to enjoy this awesome word game.
Simply download the app and log in, and you’ll have all of the wordplays you can possibly handle right in the palm of your hand.