Crossword Explorer+
Daily Trivia Crossword Puzzles
How much does Crossword Explorer+ cost?
Prices are current as of 15 Oct 2026.
Crossword Explorer+ has no in-app products on record in the United States.
10+ alternatives to Crossword Explorer+
| Crossword Explorer+ |   Tomb of the Mask+ |   Flow Free+ |   Crossword Jam+ |   Jigsaw Puzzle by MobilityWare+ |   Words of Wonders: Search+ |   Disney Getaway Blast+ |   Everyday Puzzles: Mini Games+ |   SUMI SUMI : Matching Puzzle+ |   Knotwords+ |   Summer Pop!+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating / 5 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 3.8 | 3.3 |
| Reviews | 3.2K | 43K | 33K | 31K | 21K | 15K | 13K | 4.5K | 1.1K | 276 | 88 |
| Released | 2021 | 2024 | 2026 | 2023 | 2022 | 2025 | 2023 | 2026 | 2025 | 2023 | 2024 |
Crossword Explorer+ reviews
4.8 out of 5, based on 3,196 reviews.
What people like
- No ads in the original version.
- Good for relaxing or killing time.
- Simple and quick to play.
What they complain about
- Puzzles stay too easy forever.
- Same clues and words repeat endlessly.
- Too many annoying popups interrupt play.
Fun word game
Quick, easy, stimulating
Crosswords for children
The game invited me early on to do some more difficult puzzles because I was breezing through the first ones, but none of them are remotely challenging. The screenshots look promising, but all the crosswords they offered me seem like they’re for children or grownups who don’t read. I couldn’t find any difficulty settings to tweak and I’m not going to slog through boring puzzles in search of a good one.
Sooooo many repeats, jesus christ.
The game is truly fun and something you can grind out for hours. The only irk I have, and this is a very picky one, but the consistent repeat clues make it less challenging. I have gotten multiple variations of Nebraska’s capital (Omaha) or the actor who played Snape (Alan Rickman). It truly is worth downloading it, but that’s the only thing I truly have an issue with
Too easy
Like the app but the puzzles are too easy. Need ability to select difficulty
Lacking Variety
This could easily be a 5 Star game, but due to a lack of word variety it leaves much to be desired. There are times where words like “STY” and “EMO” show up in several puzzles in a row, and that’s just two examples. Because of this, the puzzles get boring quickly. Additionally, the UI feels cheap. You only see the “map” if you back out of the puzzle. Also, other game modes exist, but getting to them is confusing. I feel like a dedicated home page would make this experience much better. Overall, I enjoy playing as a way to kill time, but I don’t often hang around for long because of the issues I mentioned.
Why I voted 5 ⭐️’s
Some clues are hard to find the word but overall really good game. No adds.
Forced Competition
Why does everything need to be in a fake meaningless league on every app now? I don’t care if Shelby69420 solved more puzzles than I did this week. The repetitive clues/answers are getting very boring after only a few days. I have no idea why they bothered to call this Crossword “Explorer”. There’s nothing thematic about the puzzles, just different background images that you hardly ever see.
Incorrect Answer
One of the clues is Photoshop creator. The answer you have is Adobe. It was created by the Knoll brothers who Adobe later bought it from.
Lots of ego, meh gameplay
The creators clearly thought forcing daily games, constant requests to turn notifications on, and watery minigames would foster loyalty and distract users from the one-size-fits-all style of clues. Most telling, the menus don’t work if the devs want you to shuffle straight into the next game. If anything, this makes me want to go find a better crossword app. Better than Candy Crush or ‘find the hidden’ cozy-Thorazine (Cozyzine!)style apps, but not by much. I’d rather watch ads than put up with this.
Nice puzzle but needs more
This is a nice crossword puzzle game but the words are repetitive. I have reached a level where the words are the same every 3rd puzzle or so. Same clues and answers. Please get something new…Soon
Fun Game
I love this game. Challenging but options for hints.
I contacted through the in-game help center
Little more to say that other critics have said. This, for years and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of levels, was so much fun. Now it’s 80% mobile game slop and 20% game that I’m actually here for. It’s like having 40 minutes of ads in a 45 minute movie. I contacted in-game help but I can’t believe it will change anything about the newest direction the game has taken. 5 star down to 1. If you’re reading this as a new or curious potential player, I’d avoid it for the most part unless you enjoy wading through a slew of pop-ups, in-game currency nonsense and “greedy mobile game goofery”.it truly feels like a large out of touch company bought out the original developers and changed the game in almost every way you would be frustrated with.
Not challenging
Good time waster and I enjoy it overall, but the questions are way too easy and VERY repetitive
For kids
I don’t understand this. I’m on level 180, waiting for it to jump up in difficulty. No jump. It gives dignity-insulting clues like “not NO, but ____” (hypothetical, but really not an exaggeration). You don’t even need to look at the down clues. You whip through five across clues in 10 seconds. I’m kind of embarrassed that I went through 180 levels of this. The app ads even show much larger puzzles, but I have no idea how to get to that. If I have played this many puzzles and it’s still as easy as the very first one, I can’t imagine how many it takes to get to the bigger puzzles.
Recent change, makes it difficult to play
I used to love this game. It was my go to in the morning when I was just trying to get going. However, recently, they’ve added all sorts of extra things to the app. They make it difficult to use, slow it down and require me to restart it often.
Amazing
Amazing amazing amazing
Not the best crossword
I don't much care for it. Every game is far too simple to complete. Would love tougher levels but they only gave me one "tough" level and I finished it just as quickly as the "easier" levels. Just not challenging enough.
Good, but could be great
Game play is clean and simple, but overall long term satisfaction suffers from repetition of clues and answers. Good for a quick 2 minutes distraction.
Way too easy
I was hoping the puzzles would get more challenging, but it’s not happening…. Zzzzz
Very fun
I like this because the difficulty doesn’t ramp up so quickly that I feel like a moron. I’m not a professional crosswords player. I’m just a dude that likes the occasional fun game on my phone. Edit: December 2025 What happened? My beloved chill out app to slow down and relax with now has popups during each game, and more than one. It’s annoying. At first I thought what the heck I’ll try it, and I got lost in what game I’m even playing. You leave the current board, then the next on and so on. It’s disorienting. Now I just dismiss all that noise so I can get back to relaxing. I don’t want engagement bait. This isn’t TikTok and that’s what I like.
Crossword Explorer Player
I find this game very enjoyable, entertaining, and challenging.
Recycling clues ruins the game
Was fun the first day or two but then you start to see the same clues over and over, completely ruins it. Game deleted.
Amazing game just one exception?
This is an amazing game and all but could you add in more clues please🦊🐯🦁
Stopped working after a flight
I tried using it in airplane mode and it got stuck on the initial loading screen. Then once I landed it still never got past the loading screen. I thought Apple tested and enforced NSNetwork etc error handling in app submissions. My other complaint is it uses an audio session that prevents me from listening to music or podcasts. I’d rather turn off the public domain bleeps and blips and listen to Carpenter Brut while I do crosswords.
Repeating words
A lot of repetitive words, not very challenging but does pass the time.
Super fun😁
This is a very good game to play for fun 🤩 I think it has a lot of mentality love it and no ads that’s a really good perk
Fallen Far
As others have stated, this game used to be good (around a 3.5-4 star game), but an update took out all the fun and replaced it with the kind of mobile game BS I’d expect from things not on Apple Arcade. Half my time is now spent trying to click past popups and that I don’t care about. Guess it’s time to find a new game for commutes.
Clues
Some clues are factually wrong, for example, bees don’t ‘gather’ honey. They gather polen and make honey from it.
Fake pay to play
Why do you now have to pay to see the wrong letters? And why does it cost more than you win for completing a puzzle?
I really enjoy the game
But I switched to a new iPhone and I lost all my progress, I was in level 1018 and now back to one even though iCloud was enabled for this app. I don’t think I’m doing it again
Crossword
Fun!
Ruined by Constant Nagging
This used to be a fun, chill, and casual crossword game; perfect when you have a few minutes. I don’t know what came over the devs in the past few months, but they opted to throw all that out the window for what I can only describe as “typical modern mobile game-isms.” Daily gifts! Pointless in-game currencies! Random achievement popups! Unnecessary gacha elements (lucky spinner, anyone)! Weird, poorly explained, and ultimately pointless competitive modes! Why?! I just want to solve a few silly little puzzles when I have a few free minutes. Why is that so hard for mobile developers nowadays to grasp?
💀💀💀
Ok, but first, WHY IS IT AN ARCADE GAME. It kinda looks like its not 💀💀💀💀💀
Way too gamified
Gimmicks and awards and totally unnecessary nudges to play. I think this game is an unhealthy version of crosswords. Avoid!!
All the puzzles are “Easy Peasy”?
How in the world do I get puzzles that are harder than for a child? I’m on level 36 and every puzzle is labeled “easy peasy” and I cannot figure out a way to change the difficulty. I’m growing bored and don’t feel challenged.
Crossword
Good for the mind, especially for older people!
Crossword fan? Don’t play.
I love crosswords. This game is so boring. If you’re a crossword fan, don’t even bother.
Fun
The only thing I would add is the ability to put it in landscape mode on my iPad. Easier when using a keyboard case.
Too easy
I love crosswords and when I saw the images with the large crossword puzzles in the App Store I thought this would be the perfect blend of challenge and fun. So far, the puzzles have been way too simple and there is no obvious way to skip ahead and start with puzzles that aren’t rated easy.
Relaxing but too easy
I am only 30 levels in and I find the game relaxing, but the levels are too easy. I would hope they would get harder but, from previous reviewers I have read, that does not seem to be the case. I like the fact that I do not have to constantly struggle with questions requiring wide-ranging, little-known answers but being able to complete puzzles in less than 1 minute does start to get tiring. I would gladly give a higher rating if there were options to increase the difficulty, or choose what type of puzzles to play (simple like the current puzzles, obscure questions/answers, etc.). Thanks!
Amazing!
This game is the best! I love it!
Not for anyone with true thinking ability.
If you enjoy crossword puzzles you will hate this. Childish and lacking in any ability to stimulate the mind. If you have successfully completed Kindergarten this will not interest you at all.
Too easy
Seems like it could be a fun game for people who don’t want crosswords that are too difficult, but it’s too easy for me. I stopped at level 5 so I don’t know if it gets harder from there
Stop the nagging!
Why can’t you add a “leave me alone” option? I don’t care about daily goals and prizes or where I stand against other players. I just want to peacefully solve the puzzles. For those who want those things, great. But leave the rest of us alone and allow us to opt out. You’re just as bad as apps that constantly throw ads at us.
Often doesn’t load
This app often doesn’t load when I open it; it loads the Home Screen, but a black screen comes up instead of the puzzle.
Super Duper awesome game
This game is awesome. It helps me find out new things that you’d even know I knew and it helps me understand what crossword puzzles are.
Bugs
Letters are sticking/and daily rewards of coins are not being deposited/screen is frozen
Slow but something to do
The first 200 or so puzzles are very small and repetitive. I don’t know how many times I’ve put in Adele, sty, Omaha or whatever. It takes forever to get into it and even when the puzzles are larger, they’re so repetitive. But regardless of this, it’s extremely addictive. I do wish some of the questions were less “American”, but if you want a game to just pass the time, this is a good option.
Just ehh…
The transitions are clunky, the op-ups and banners abrasive, and the game play awkward. The animation overall just feels slightly jarring and the puzzle questions are often repetitive, with a fair amount of the clues feeling like they’re really reaching in credibility over witty association. The “themed” puzzles have very little to do with their actual theme, and the ones that do are often rather obscure. It was a fun time killer for a slight while, but got old fast…
A little too easy
I’m about 130 levels into this game, and the puzzles have been very easy so far — generally only 3-4 letters long and quite a bit of repetition. I’m not sure if the game will get more difficult, but I feel by this point the puzzles should be more challenging.
Crossword Explorer+ FAQ
- Is Crossword Explorer+ free?
- Yes. The app is free, in all 172 countries it sells in, and it sells nothing inside it.
- Does Crossword Explorer+ have a free trial?
- No. None of its offers (US) come with a free trial.
- What are the best alternatives to Crossword Explorer+?
- Tomb of the Mask+ (4.8 from 43,251 reviews), Flow Free+ (4.7 from 33,060 reviews) and Crossword Jam+ (4.8 from 31,368 reviews).
Crossword Explorer+ download
Last updated 10 months ago.
Crossword Explorer+ sells in 172 countries. It was released 5 years and 6 months ago, on 2 Apr 2021. It holds a 4.8 rating from 3,196 reviews.
Supports 1 language: English.
How much does Crossword Explorer+ make?
Third-party estimates for the last 30 days, worldwide — not the store's own figures, which Apple publishes for nobody.