USA TODAY PLAY Crossword+

Name: USA TODAY PLAY Crossword+
Rating: 4.5 (8754 reviews)
Author: USA TODAY

Crossword, Sudoku & More

Free · In‑App Purchases

8.8K Ratings
Ages

4+
Years
Category

Word
Developer

USA TODAY
Language

EN
English
Size

80.5
MB

Elevate your puzzle-solving skills with the USA TODAY PLAY app, including Crosswords, Quick Cross and Sudoku! Challenge yourself daily with our renowned crossword puzzles, sudoku grids, and Quick Cross while keeping track of your progress, all in one ultimate puzzle games app. • DAILY CROSSWORD CHALLENGE: Start your day with our iconic daily crossword puzzle, a brain teaser loved by millions. Free to play and accessible anytime, anywhere. • PERSONALIZED PUZZLE EXPERIENCE: Monitor your stats, pause puzzles, and change difficulty settings for a tailored gaming experience. • PUZZLE ARCHIVE: Delve into over a decade's worth of crossword puzzles, sudoku grids, and Quick Cross challenges. Hours of puzzle-solving fun await! • GET PUZZLE HINTS: Stuck on a clue? Don't worry! Request hints to keep the puzzle excitement going. • SUDOKU FUN: In addition to daily crosswords, challenge your logic with sudoku puzzles, available right at your fingertips. • ULTIMATE PUZZLE GAMES: USA TODAY PLAY app is your one-stop destination for daily crossword, sudoku, and Quick Cross challenges, designed for puzzle enthusiasts of all levels. Download the USA TODAY PLAY app today and enjoy hours of mind-bending puzzle fun. The app is free to download and play, with premium features available through in-app subscriptions. Subscriptions are charged to your iTunes account upon confirmation and renew automatically unless you disable them in your iTunes account settings at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Find more details and customer support in the app's settings. Privacy Policy: https://cm.usatoday.com/privacy/ Terms of Service: https://cm.usatoday.com/terms/ Got questions or feedback? Reach out to us at mobilesupport@gannett.com.

Ratings & Reviews

4.5

out of 5

8.8K Ratings

Exceptional customer service
08/12/2025

Beach1503
I used to just get the 2 free puzzles a week. They offered a special deal for a year so I subscribed. I love crosswords and sudoku. Last week it wasn’t showing my subscription. I tried to sign in again and it wouldn’t sign in with google, but I could sign in online. It was just the app. I emailed support and they responded quickly and said they found the issue and fixed it. The problem continued and I emailed again. He said that if I using the games app to try the USA Today app and go to puzzles to see if it would work. And also try using a laptop and try the website. Or maybe it just needed a day to reset itself. I did all those things and it now works. The rep was very responsive and helpful and I really appreciated it. Thank you!
Exceptional customer service
08/12/2025

Beach1503

I used to just get the 2 free puzzles a week. They offered a special deal for a year so I subscribed. I love crosswords and sudoku. Last week it wasn’t showing my subscription. I tried to sign in again and it wouldn’t sign in with google, but I could sign in online. It was just the app. I emailed support and they responded quickly and said they found the issue and fixed it. The problem continued and I emailed again. He said that if I using the games app to try the USA Today app and go to puzzles to see if it would work. And also try using a laptop and try the website. Or maybe it just needed a day to reset itself. I did all those things and it now works. The rep was very responsive and helpful and I really appreciated it. Thank you!
Worst Crossword App Imaginable
10/04/2025

RDWharley
I love the USA Today crosswords, but this app needs some refinement. They need to study the New York Times crossword app and come up with something similar. You can use the NYT app off-line and you don’t need to have an Internet connection to use it. With the USA app, anytime you leave the puzzle, you need an internet connection to get back into the puzzle. The moves from square to square within the app are cumbersome also. If you have a clue that has five boxes and you fill in the last two it should automatically go back to the first empty box in the word. It doesn’t. It goes to the next empty space. Frequently when going back to a puzzle I’m working, the last four or five answers I put in the puzzle are gone and I have to redo them. No idea why. I have to push on a different square to get it to work Also, when a clue refers to another word in the puzzle, it should highlight that word so it’s easy to find. The numbers of the clues are so small that is very difficult to locate. If it wasn’t for the fact that I enjoy the puzzles, I wouldn’t use this app in a heartbeat. They really need to study the NYT app. It is absolutely phenomenal!
Worst Crossword App Imaginable
10/04/2025

RDWharley

I love the USA Today crosswords, but this app needs some refinement. They need to study the New York Times crossword app and come up with something similar. You can use the NYT app off-line and you don’t need to have an Internet connection to use it. With the USA app, anytime you leave the puzzle, you need an internet connection to get back into the puzzle. The moves from square to square within the app are cumbersome also. If you have a clue that has five boxes and you fill in the last two it should automatically go back to the first empty box in the word. It doesn’t. It goes to the next empty space. Frequently when going back to a puzzle I’m working, the last four or five answers I put in the puzzle are gone and I have to redo them. No idea why. I have to push on a different square to get it to work Also, when a clue refers to another word in the puzzle, it should highlight that word so it’s easy to find. The numbers of the clues are so small that is very difficult to locate. If it wasn’t for the fact that I enjoy the puzzles, I wouldn’t use this app in a heartbeat. They really need to study the NYT app. It is absolutely phenomenal!
Buggy and slow
09/13/2022

Chris01973
The most recent update removes the previous and next arrows to jump between clues. This makes navigating the puzzle very frustrating, especially when there doesn’t seem to be any logic behind what clue you end up on after completing one. Loading the puzzle archive takes forever, and it defaults to showing all puzzles instead of unplayed ones, so you have to select the option for only unplayed puzzles and then wait forever a second time. After I’ve completed a puzzle, if a start a second, more often than not I can’t type in the boxes. The keyboard acts like it’s working but no letters appear. I have to force close the app and restart it, then go though the slow multi-step process to get to a puzzle from the archive again. The puzzles themselves are pretty good but there can be a lot of word repetition from day to day. In difficulty, they’re roughly equal to a bit easier than an NYT Monday puzzle. It’s about right for me now, being a crossword newbie, but I feel like I might outgrow them in less than the timeframe of the one year subscription I purchased.
Buggy and slow
09/13/2022

Chris01973

The most recent update removes the previous and next arrows to jump between clues. This makes navigating the puzzle very frustrating, especially when there doesn’t seem to be any logic behind what clue you end up on after completing one. Loading the puzzle archive takes forever, and it defaults to showing all puzzles instead of unplayed ones, so you have to select the option for only unplayed puzzles and then wait forever a second time. After I’ve completed a puzzle, if a start a second, more often than not I can’t type in the boxes. The keyboard acts like it’s working but no letters appear. I have to force close the app and restart it, then go though the slow multi-step process to get to a puzzle from the archive again. The puzzles themselves are pretty good but there can be a lot of word repetition from day to day. In difficulty, they’re roughly equal to a bit easier than an NYT Monday puzzle. It’s about right for me now, being a crossword newbie, but I feel like I might outgrow them in less than the timeframe of the one year subscription I purchased.
Good puzzles, app needs work
11/14/2025

tomatoes3
This app is so clunky. Get rid of the massive bar at the top and make it so I don’t have to scroll. I want to see the whole crossword.Sometimes the keyboard just disappears. I figured out a loophole to get it back by tapping on settings, and now this loophole is gone since the latest update. I have to exit the crossword and reopen it to get the keyboard to reappear.If that wasn’t frustrating enough, the app also doesn’t recognize when I finish a puzzle. I will again try opening and closing the puzzle which used to work but now I have to click the help button and “check puzzle” to know if It’s completed. Is this by design? It seemed to automatically show the “puzzle completed” screen once or twice when I first downloaded.Not saying you need to copy NYT format but please take some inspiration from them, because this is almost unusable.
Good puzzles, app needs work
11/14/2025

tomatoes3

This app is so clunky. Get rid of the massive bar at the top and make it so I don’t have to scroll. I want to see the whole crossword.Sometimes the keyboard just disappears. I figured out a loophole to get it back by tapping on settings, and now this loophole is gone since the latest update. I have to exit the crossword and reopen it to get the keyboard to reappear.If that wasn’t frustrating enough, the app also doesn’t recognize when I finish a puzzle. I will again try opening and closing the puzzle which used to work but now I have to click the help button and “check puzzle” to know if It’s completed. Is this by design? It seemed to automatically show the “puzzle completed” screen once or twice when I first downloaded.Not saying you need to copy NYT format but please take some inspiration from them, because this is almost unusable.

• We've resolved several bugs and improved performance - let us know how you like it: reach out to mobilesupport@gannett.com.

Version 2.18.0

12/17/2025

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