Games like Waffle: daily letter-swapping word puzzles

The closest games swap two letters at a time. Crosswordle scrambles a whole small crossword, a 7x7 and a 9x9 each day, and gives you a move limit like Waffle. Reunion, from Merriam-Webster, has a Classic and an Extreme grid and shows the average number of moves everyone took. The Boston Globe's Align asks you to line up ten words in a grid against time and swaps, and Rowdle cuts the problem down to five rows where only the rows matter. Swap from the LA Times and PuzzleLab's CrossSet do the same with a mini crossword, so you also have clues or crossing words to lean on.

Other games move letters in different ways. Slideword slides whole rows and columns of a 5x5 grid, Typeshift slides columns like a combination lock, Omiword moves tiles within their sectors of a square frame, and PIVOT and Karat turn letters around pivots or rings. These feel more like a mechanical puzzle and reward planning a few moves ahead.

If you like Waffle for its move count, start with Crosswordle or Reunion; if you like the green-yellow feedback, Rowdle uses the same colours. Puzzleship's Word Scramble is a gentler choice with six short puzzles a day.