Here's Why You Can't Find Vertex in 'The New York Times' Games App

Though The New York Times may have been founded as an outlet for journalism, it's become increasingly popular for its games section. The website offers a collection of puzzle games, including the rage-inducing Connections and the previously-purchased Wordle, each offering the user anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour of head-scratching puzzles (depending on how many they do).

Vertex has been one of the standard games included in The New York Times games section, but unfortunately, some users are reporting being unable to find it on their NYT Games app. Others who access it on The New York Times app have also reported it missing, leaving many wondering what happened to the game.

Players on Reddit have shared varying reports of the game being unavailable on the various apps associated with the outlet, though it seems to differ from device to device. Unfortunately, it just seems that the game has been taken down from the apps, meaning players can no longer play Vertex alongside Connections, the Mini, Sudoku, and others.

That said, Vertex remains in the outlet's games section on the desktop site until the final puzzle is published on Aug. 29, 2024. The NYT announced it is discontinuing Vertex. "We’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue Vertex. The last puzzle will be published on August 29th, 2024. By removing Vertex, we are able to refocus our resources and continue to improve The New York Times Games portfolio and the experience for our players."

Fans of the game were clearly upset by the news, writing on X (formerly Twitter), "Sad to lose one of the most intelligent games out there. I’ve decided to quit my NYT subscription partly due to the deletion of the Vertex game. NYT should heed “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Another chimed in, "So gutted. I can’t understand the logic behind dropping this.."

Vertex is actually incredibly easy to learn — though not every puzzle will be simple to complete. Players are presented with a partially finished picture and some dots, each with numbers inside of them. The numbers inside these dots indicate just how many times the player has to connect a line to that dot to successfully complete the picture.

Though this may seem simple enough, some of the final results are incredibly intricate and can take quite a bit of time to get right.

Unfortunately, not every game included in The New York Times's games section is available for free. Some of the games, like the daily crossword, require a subscription to complete. Others, like Wordle and the Mini, are free to play regardless of a user's subscription status.

Those with a games subscription to The New York Times, though, will have access to all of the various games available on the website, as well as the archives. This means players can go back and complete old puzzles once they've worked through all of the new puzzles of the day.

Although the NYT is discontinuing Vertex, we’re hopeful it will make room for new games that fans will love and enjoy.