JetPunk Word Search: After How Many Days is a Featured Puzzle Lost?

Possibly JetPunk's greatest addition in quite some time has been the ability for any user to create a Word Search Puzzle and share it on the site. Along with this came the fact that a completely new puzzle will appear on the front page every day. On February 18, I created a puzzle called "Former Countries," which has now recently been featured. Thanks, Stewart!

It was featured on April 1 (I honestly did think for a second when I got the notification that it was an April Fool's joke!) and appeared on the front page April 2. When it first got featured, it got around 200 plays that day. When it appeared on the front page, it had well over 1000. Every day after that, it has been getting fewer and fewer new plays. This makes sense, as everybody who is interested in JetPunk's Word Search has likely already taken it, but it made me wonder. How many days after appearing on the front page does a puzzle become forgotten and get about as many new plays per day as a regular, non-featured puzzle? In my first ever blog (which I think is overdue as I have been using JetPunk for three years now), I will be examining the number of new plays per day for three featured JetPunk puzzles: "Pixar Movies" by Eggsforhire, "Airlines" by MasterRocket, and "Fifteen Shades of Green" by, Insaniot. I measured the number of new plays each day for each of these puzzles at 12:00 AM GMT (8:00 PM EDT, from where I am), starting the day they were featured and ending three days after they appeared on the front page, and recorded the data into charts.

The puzzle "Pixar Movies" by user Eggsforhire was featured, like the other two, on April 12, 2026. It was featured much earlier in the day than the other two, however, so it has many more plays on day 1 than the other two. Perhaps it was featured earlier, but I first noticed it on April 12, so for the sake of this blog, that is when it was featured. It is Eggsforhire's second featured puzzle, after "UK Cities". The puzzle appeared on the front page April 13. The number of new plays per day for this puzzle were measured each day from April 12 to April 16, and the data were plotted in the chart below.

As can be seen in the chart, the puzzle was by far at its most popular on the day it appeared on the front page. After that, however, it has gained fewer new plays each day. It appears that most everyone who plays JetPunk's word search has already taken the puzzle.

MasterRocket had been on FIRE since Jetpunk opened up Word Search creation for anyone. I swear, MasterRocket has more featured puzzles than everyone else (excluding Stewart) combined! (I didn't actually count.) The puzzle "Airlines" was featured along with the other two mentioned in this blog, and appeared on the front page two days later, on April 14. The number of new plays per day was measured over six days, and the chart below displays these data.

Both charts so far have a huge peak on the day they appeared on the front page. There is also a noticeable increase in the first two days, but "Airlines" was features late in the day on April 12 (GMT). Like "Pixar Movies," "Airlines" had gotten fewer new plays each day since it appeared on the front page.

As of the time this blog is being written, JetPunk user Insaniot only has three puzzles – two of which are featured. "Fifteen Shades of Green" was featured at the same time as "Airlines." The data were collected for this puzzle and plotted in the chart below.

The last four days of each graph are pretty much the same – a huge peak on the days they appeared on the front page, and every day afterwards has fewer plays than the one before it. This one is particularly interesting. Since it was featured late in the day, it doesn't have many plays on day 1, and so most of its early plays are from day 2. By day 3, most early-takers have already taken the puzzle, and the vast majority of word search players waited until it appeared on the front page to take it.

So what does this mean? For one, it appears that there are around 350 JetPunk users that play a puzzle as soon as they see that it's featured (as the last two in this blog were featured late in the day, most people would have played them the next day). It also appears that there are around 1400 JetPunk users who play a puzzle the day it appears on the front page. And after that, each puzzle gets fewer and fewer plays each day. Based on these graphs, I would estimate that about 2000 of us are regular players of JetPunk's word search. There are also, however, probably some users who are starting to take each puzzle from the very beginning. For example, Puzzle #1, "Rivers," has over 45000 plays. This could easily be due to the fact that for multiple years, no new puzzles were added, and people just went and replayed old ones. But it could also be a sign that more and more people are starting to play JetPunk's word search.

If you have a featured puzzle, congratulations! If not, don't worry! It's easier than you think to get one featured. The earlier you make a puzzle, the more likely it is to be featured, so start making some now! When you do get one featured, though, don't expect it to get much more than 2000 plays.

Overall, this blog has determined that most people only play the puzzle that appears on the front page at any given day. It has also determined that after this day, it will get fewer and fewer plays until eventually, it is forgotten. Yes, I know, people will still take a puzzle long after it appears on the front page, but compared to that day, I will receive almost none.