Cracking the 2025 Top Twenty Puzzle in Today’s NYT Strands
If you opened up today’s New York Times Strands puzzle and felt a little stuck, you’re definitely not alone. The theme for Dec. 30 is called “2025 Top Twenty,” and at first glance, that phrase alone doesn’t exactly scream clarity. But once the pieces start coming together, it becomes a fun trip through the biggest hit songs of the year, all cleverly hidden inside the grid.
The big hint that helps everything click is surprisingly simple: turn on the radio. That clue points directly toward popular music, and once that idea settles in, the puzzle starts to make a lot more sense. This Strands challenge leans heavily on familiarity with chart-topping tracks from 2025, which means if you haven’t been paying close attention to what’s been dominating the airwaves, it can feel tricky at first.
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As always with Strands, progress is often unlocked by finding any words you can, even if they don’t seem related to the theme right away. By locating three words that are at least four letters long, an in-game hint is revealed. Words like “raid,” “data,” “gold,” “child,” and even “diary” can help trigger those hints. They may look random, but they serve as stepping stones to the real answers.
Eventually, the themed words begin to emerge, and this is where the music connection becomes clear. Titles like “Golden,” “Daisies,” “Manchild,” “Ordinary,” and “Abracadabra” show up as part of the solution set. Each of these reflects hit songs that helped define the year’s sound, and seeing them woven into the puzzle feels especially satisfying once the pattern is recognized.
The centerpiece of the puzzle, though, is the spangram. In today’s game, that word is “HITSONGS,” and it stretches across the board, tying the entire theme together. Once the spangram is found, the remaining answers often fall into place more easily. When everything is solved correctly, every single letter in the grid is used, which is always a nice confirmation that nothing has been missed.
Overall, today’s Strands puzzle feels like a celebration of 2025’s biggest musical moments. It rewards both persistence and pop culture awareness, and even if you needed a few hints along the way, the payoff is worth it. Whether you breezed through it or struggled until the last word, this one was clearly designed to end the year on a catchy, upbeat note.
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