January 2026 Quartiles Recap: A Month in Solutions

January was packed with strong puzzles, and we had a full month of data to look back on. Below is a quick, data-driven recap of the month, including the average number of solutions per day and the average number of solutions by tile length.

Daily solution totals

Each bar represents the total number of solutions found in a single daily puzzle, segmented by tile length. The average for the month was 27.0 solutions per day.

The busiest puzzle was Jan 11, with 30 total solutions. The leanest day was Jan 5, with 25 solutions.

Average solutions by tile length

Quartiles rewards longer builds, but shorter words remain the backbone of every grid. The chart below shows the average number of solutions per day by tile length across January.

2-tile words dominated the month, averaging 12.3 per day—more than double the next-highest average (5.7). 3-tile words were the dependable middle layer, while 4-tile words sat at a steady five per day—unsurprisingly, since the daily goal is to find the five quartiles.

What stood out

• The month averaged 27.0 total solutions per day.
• 2-tile words were the workhorse, outpacing every other length by a wide margin on most days.
• 3-tile solutions provided steady depth, while 4-tile words were rarer but highly impactful for scoring.
• Several days spiked above the average, usually when the grid had highly combinable tile sets.

Want to explore a specific day? Head to the January 2026 answers archive.