🏀About Athle
Hi! Athle is a small side project I make in my spare time. I love daily puzzles, I love sport, and this is my attempt at putting the two together. I hope you enjoy it 💜
What I'm going for
Something fun and fast for your morning coffee that actually rewards knowing your stuff. Six games, three sports, a fresh set in most every day, and no email or password anywhere. Play one in a minute or all of them in ten, collect the cards you earn on the way, and put your scores next to your friends' in a group.
Why I built Athle
Daily puzzles are the best kind of habit. They're short, they're shared, and everyone gets the same challenge. I loved that, but the ones I played were all about words and maps. I've followed football, tennis and basketball my whole life. I wanted one that lived in that world: the players, the clubs, the rivalries and the careers I argue about with friends.
It started as one game: a blurred photo, a few honest clues, and the thrill of locking in the right athlete one guess before everyone else. Then I couldn't stop, and five more followed. Same idea every time: one shot a day, the same for everyone.
Lineup came last. A genuinely famous team, formation and all, completely empty, and you name every player from memory.
The Cabinet came from the same place. Finishing a daily earns you a pack, packs turn into cards, and the cards build a squad you can arrange and keep. It gives the streak somewhere to go, so coming back tomorrow is worth more than watching a number tick up.
What I didn't want was everything else that usually comes with this. No endless feed, no paywall on the puzzle. Open it, play it, come back tomorrow.
What makes Athle different
- Three sports under one roof. Football, tennis and basketball each get their own daily puzzle, so there is always something for your favourite.
- Six ways to play. Guess the hidden athlete from clues. Fill a category grid. Match shown players across a bingo board. Take a trivia quiz, link two players through the teammates they shared, or name a famous team from memory. A fresh puzzle every day.
- Clues that reward real knowledge. Nationality, position, era, career moves and more, not just a name you either know or you don't.
- Respectful of your time and attention. One puzzle a day, no email address, and nothing about you collected beyond the name you choose to be called.
New here? Learn the rules on the how-to-play page or just jump into today's puzzle.
Collect the Card Cabinet
Football, basketball and tennis each have a second game hiding inside them. Finish any of the six and you earn packs of collectible player cards. Open them and build a squad whose rating climbs with chemistry. Football adds all-time Legends and Coaches.
Curious how it all fits together? See how the Cabinet works.
Play it with your friends
One puzzle a day, the same one for everyone, is only half the ritual. The other half is arguing about it. Groups let you put up to 20 people on one leaderboard across all six games. Filter by today, the week, the month, all time, or any single past day. Each other's Cabinet squads are a tap away. Make one from the menu in any game's top bar and share the six-character code. Next to it, the globe opens Today's world: the top 100 across everyone who finished that day's puzzle, whichever game you pick.
Groups need a name, because a leaderboard is a list of people. That is all it is: a name you choose and the dailies you finished. No email, no password, nothing to install.
Your account, if you want one
Athle had no accounts for a long time, and everything you built lived in one browser. That was fine until a new phone or a cleared cache took a hundred cards and a forty-day streak with it. So there is an account now, asking for the least I could get away with. You pick a name. I show you a recovery code, once. That pair is your login. No email, no password, nothing to verify.
With one, your Cabinet, streaks, stats and groups follow you to any device. Without one, everything still works, it just never leaves this browser. You are never asked before you have something worth keeping.
I store your name and a one-way scrambled copy of the code, so I cannot read it or reset it. That is the point: a name alone must never be enough to take someone's account. Save it when it appears.
Who's in the games
Missing someone? Here's exactly who I cover, sport by sport.
Football
Full current rosters of the top-5 European leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1), plus a hand-picked set of global stars who play elsewhere. The retired count is a separate curated set of all-time greats. They never appear in Guess, Grid, Bingo or Quiz. They exist so Chain can route through their eras and Lineup can field the teams that made them famous.
Tennis
Every ATP and WTA player who finished a season in the year-end Top 10 since 2000, the pre-2000 legends who defined the sport before that, and every man who has reached the world Top 50 in singles since 2006.
Basketball
Every NBA player of the modern era who lasted four seasons and averaged six points a game, plus the all-time greats going back to the 1950s. Deep enough that the rotation players count, not just the household names.
What's next
Athle is just getting started. If people keep playing it, I'd love to add more sports, new clue types, and better ways to share and compete with friends. I fit this around a job and a life, so it moves at one-person pace, but I read everything that comes in and the roadmap really is shaped by what players ask for. Got an idea? Tell me.
Support the project
Athle is free, and it stays that way. There's no paywall on a puzzle and there never will be. If it's part of your day, a coffee helps with the bills that keep it running. Totally optional either way 💜
Say hello
Questions, bugs, or a player at the wrong club? Write to me any time at playathle@gmail.com, or use the contact page if you'd rather pick a topic first. It comes straight to me, and honestly, hearing from someone who actually plays this is the best part of making it.
Jump into today's puzzle