How Likely is a Word Search Feature?

A week after JetPunk opened up the ability for anyone to create a word search puzzle on the site, JetPunk user akjlddkjslfsd published a blog about the statistics from the first week. This blog proposed the odds of getting a feature, but never actually stated what they were (other than mention that there was a 6.1% rate). This blog is sort of a replication of that, but also not really. Here, I will be examining the number of new puzzles per day, the number of new features per day, and the ratios of featured puzzles to total puzzles; all to determine the likelihood of getting your puzzle featured. I measured all three of these over the course of five days, starting on the day I had the idea for this blog, Aprill 22, 2026. It should also be mentioned that I made two puzzles in this time, and I was thinking of excluding them from this blog, but I always create a puzzle whenever I have an idea for one, so I don't think they will be too "unnatural" for these data. Without further ado, here we go!

User puzzles get released all the time, but are barely played. Over five days, I measured the number of new puzzles released per day, and graphed them in the chart below.

As can be seen, a fair number of puzzles are released per day. Of these five days, the maximum was 16 and the minimum was 7. The average was 10.8. It seems creating word search puzzles is still popular among JetPunk users. It doesn't appear to be getting more or less popular, so we can assume that this is approximately how many puzzles get released per day.

JetPunk features puzzles at a slow rate, which is a good thing, because then there would be an overload of featured puzzles. Over the five days selected for this blog, here are the number of puzzles that were featured each day.

Very few. No puzzles were featured on two of the five days, which is not surprising, but still! The average number of features per day on these five days was 1. This is much lower than the average number of new puzzles per day. Just from a quick, non-mathematical analysis, I don't think the likelihood of getting a feature is very high now!

Over each of these five days, the TOTAL NUMBER of featured puzzles not by Stewart was divided by the TOTAL NUMBER of puzzles on the site, both featured (not by Stewart) and non-featured. The chart below shows these results.

Decreasing. At an average of 0.001 per day. You know what this means? Check the Synthesis section.

So, statistically, and ignoring other factors such as appeal, effort, and whether or not there is a hidden message, there is, as of April 26, 2026, a 0.17% chance of getting your puzzle featured, and this number is decreasing. In addition, FAR MORE puzzles are released every day than puzzles that are featured per day, providing a sensible explanation for these numbers.

If you don't yet have a feature, and want one, or if you already have at least one but want another, START MAKING PUZZLES NOW! In due time, the likelihood of getting a featured puzzle will be close enough to that of getting a featured quiz! Also, keep in mind that, as mentioned above, there ARE other factors that contribute to the likelihood of getting a feature. So, don't just make more puzzles, make them interesting, put effort into them, and include a hidden message. Best of luck!