LinkedIn is venturing into the gaming industry with the launch of three new daily puzzle games: Pinpoint, Crossclimb, and Queens. These games are now available to users on the LinkedIn mobile app and desktop under the LinkedIn News and My Network section.

• Pinpoint is a word association game where players must guess the category of five revealed words within a time limit, aiming to solve the puzzle with as few words as possible.
  
• Crossclimb combines trivia and wordplay. Users must create a ladder of words, each differing by one letter from the previous word, to reveal the clue and win the game.
  
• Queens, a sudoku-inspired game without numbers, tasks players with positioning queens on a grid without any queens touching each other while ensuring a single queen in each row and column.

“For the last month, I’ve been testing out the team’s amazing creation and I can’t think of a product that has been more fun to put through its paces,” said Daniel Roth, Editor-in-Chief and VP at LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn Product Management Director Lakshman Somasundaram wrote, “It’s time we turn over a new leaf in how we deepen and reignite relationships at work and put fun at the heart of it.”

LinkedIn’s foray into gaming follows a broader trend in the digital content industry, where publications are leveraging games to attract and retain users amid declining ad revenue. 

Axios states that The New York Times’ games were played over 8 billion times last year, with more than half of those plays attributed to Wordle, the popular word game acquired by the NYT in 2022. 

Hearst, a magazine and newspaper publisher, recently acquired Puzzmo, a puzzle game platform. Streaming giant Netflix continues to expand its gaming offerings with exclusive mobile versions of popular titles like Hades.

While LinkedIn is currently offering its games for free, the platform is focused on enhancing user engagement and fostering connections. It does this through features like displaying high scores, daily streaks, and leaderboards for individuals, schools, and companies.