• by Ray Schultz , October 1, 2025

The Guardian has expanded its puzzle offerings beyond word and number games to encompass football and film.  

The two new puzzles, On the ball and Film reveal, are designed to help Guardian readers “upgrade their downtime,” says Liz Wynn, chief supporter officer, Guardian Media Group, in a statement.

On the ball asks users to guess a men’s top league footballer in five attempts, and promises to challenge even avid football fans. 

Film reveal is a tile-based game in which players guess film titles from different clues.  

“We know how Guardian readers love their puzzles. As they become ever more popular across all ages, we felt it was time to bring in two totally new games to challenge our readers in areas we know many of them feel passionately about - football and film. We’ve worked hard to build these new games with the same rigor and wit puzzlers have come to expect, and I hope readers find them as fun and challenging as we did creating them.”

More than 1.7 million readers enjoy the Guardian’s puzzle hub across web and app.