How we chose each category and what makes it work as a puzzle
When Griddles first launched, it had just three categories: Countries, NBA Teams, and Fruit. Today it has 18. Each one was chosen carefully — not just because the topic is interesting, but because it works well as a Griddles puzzle. Here is the story behind each group of categories and the criteria we use to decide what makes it in.
Not every topic makes a good Griddles category. A category needs to meet three criteria:
Large enough word list. We need at least 50 items in a category to generate varied daily puzzles without repeating too often. This immediately rules out categories like "Planets in the Solar System" (only 8) or "Oceans" (only 5). The best categories have hundreds of items.
Varied word lengths. If every item in a category is the same length, the puzzles become formulaic. The best categories have a mix of short and long names — "Chad" and "Mozambique" in Countries, "Drums" and "Harmonica" in Musical Instruments. This variety is what creates interesting grid arrangements.
Widely known. The category itself should be familiar to a broad audience. Niche topics like "Types of Metamorphic Rock" might work mechanically, but most players would find them frustrating rather than fun. We want categories where at least Easy and Normal difficulty feel accessible to anyone with general knowledge.
Geography was where Griddles started, and it remains the most popular group. Countries was the very first category — it has nearly 200 items with wonderful word-length variety, from short names like "Iran" and "Cuba" to long ones like "Mozambique" and "Switzerland". Most people know enough countries to tackle Easy and Normal, while Hard can pull from the full list.
Capital Cities came next as a natural companion. Then US States and US State Capitals were added because they hit the sweet spot of being well-known, having exactly 50 items, and producing excellent grids. UK Cities rounded out the geography group for our British players.
Geography categories are consistently the most played. There is something universally satisfying about seeing "GERMANY" or "BRAZIL" emerge from a jumble of letters.
NBA Teams was one of the original three categories and quickly became a fan favourite, especially among American players. Team names like "Lakers", "Celtics", and "Mavericks" are distinctive enough to be recognisable in a grid but not so obvious that the puzzle solves itself.
NFL Teams followed the same logic with 32 teams to draw from. Premier League Top Scorers was added as a nod to our football-loving audience — it tests a different kind of sports knowledge, requiring you to know player names rather than team names. Olympic Events is the broadest sports category, covering everything from "Archery" to "Volleyball".
These categories test specific domain knowledge and tend to be popular with players who enjoy trivia. US Presidents is a focused list of 46 names with great variety ("Taft" through "Washington"). Chemical Elements provides 118 items with fascinating word variety — "Tin" and "Gold" sit alongside "Molybdenum" and "Rutherfordium".
Greek Letters and NATO Alphabet are smaller, more specialised categories. They work because the items are concise and learnable — many players discover they know more Greek letters than they realised once they start seeing them in a grid. Languages is deceptively tricky; there are thousands of languages in the world, and even common ones like "Portuguese" and "Mandarin" can be hard to spot when scrambled across a grid.
Not every category needs to be academic. Car Makes, Musical Instruments, Pizza Toppings, and Fruit exist because they are fun, accessible, and produce great puzzles.
Fruit was one of the original three categories, chosen partly for its simplicity and partly because fruit names have wonderful variety: "Fig", "Kiwi", "Pineapple", "Dragonfruit". Pizza Toppings is consistently one of the most popular categories — there is something inherently entertaining about hunting for "Pepperoni" and "Mozzarella" in a grid of letters.
Car Makes and Musical Instruments were added because they hit all three criteria perfectly: large word lists, varied lengths, and universal familiarity.
We regularly receive suggestions from players for new categories, and we evaluate each one against the three criteria above. Some common requests we have had to say no to — not because they are bad ideas, but because they do not quite work mechanically:
"Dog Breeds" — great idea, but many breed names are two or three words ("Golden Retriever", "German Shepherd"), which makes grid generation very difficult at Easy difficulty.
"Movies" — the list is essentially infinite and highly subjective. There is no clear "correct" set of movies to draw from, which makes puzzle validation impossible.
"Colours" — too few items unless you include obscure names, and the common ones ("Red", "Blue") are too short to create interesting grids.
The best category suggestions tend to be specific, well-defined lists with 50-200 items and a mix of word lengths. If you have an idea, we would love to hear it — you can reach us through our contact page.
Explore the full range — from Countries to Pizza Toppings. Which one will become your favourite?
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