A Free Alternative to NYT's Digits Game

People called Digits 'Wordle with numbers.' The New York Times retired it in August 2023, and if that was your kind of puzzle, Rigid Digit scratches the same itch: five numbers instead of six, still combined with + − × ÷ to hit a fresh target every day, still free and still running.

Rigid Digit is also inspired by Countdown's Numbers Round, the British game show format Digits itself drew on - you can read how that comparison goes too.

More of a 24 Game fan? Rigid Digit fits that too - here's how it compares.

How It's Different

The core idea carried over, but a few things didn't:

• Exact or nothing. Digits gave partial credit for getting close: three stars for an exact hit, two within 10, one within 25. Rigid Digit only counts an exact hit as solved, which is where the 'Rigid' in the name comes from. There's no ambiguity about whether you actually got it. One Digits player made the point back in 2023: every target had an exact answer, so stars for getting close didn't mean much.
• Four difficulty levels, not one fixed set. Digits gave everyone the same five puzzles a day, increasing in difficulty. Rigid Digit splits that into four separate levels (Easy, Medium, Hard, Extreme) you can play in any order, as many as you like. Digits players complained both ways, that it was too easy and that it got too hard too fast. Separate levels suit both.
• Five numbers, not six. At most four steps to hold in your head, not five. That's about the limit most people can juggle at once, which is what makes it fun instead of frustrating.
• Still running. Digits was retired in August 2023. Rigid Digit puts out a new set of puzzles every day, indefinitely.
• Nothing but taps. Tap a number, a sign, then another number, and they merge. Double-tap a tile to split it back. Hit the target and it's solved, no submit button needed.

What Digits Players Asked For

The comments on the Times' article about how Digits was made read like a wishlist, and three years on people are still adding 'I miss Digits' to them. Most of what they asked for is here:

• An undo button. Double-tap any merged tile to split it back apart.
• A timer. The clock starts on your first tap, so thinking time is free, and you can ignore it completely.
• The fewest steps possible. Your shared result shows whether you used the fewest possible equations.
• Stats like Wordle. Streaks, fast solves, and how your solve rate compares with everyone else's.

Other Games Digits Players Try

Search for a Digits replacement and you'll find straight copies of the original, plus a few other daily maths games. Copies aside, Rigid Digit is the closest free daily numbers puzzle to the retired New York Times Digits game: a handful of numbers, the four basic operations, and one target to hit exactly. The others are good games, they just aren't Digits.

• Nerdle Guess a hidden eight-character equation in six tries, Wordle-style. Fun, but you're cracking someone else's sum rather than building your own.
• Mathler Also a guessing game: you know the answer and hunt for the hidden equation that makes it. Closer to Wordle than to Digits.
• Operator Six numbers and a target, but instead of one solve you hunt for as many short two-step sums as you can, like (5 × 3) + 2. More a word search for equations than a Digits puzzle.