Ranked Sudoku
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September Update: Pause, Countdown and Your Elo History

Product Update

A lot landed in September. Here's what's new.

Pause, whenever you need it

Practice, Daily and Ranked Match now have a pause button right next to the timer. The board blurs and locks until you resume — and in a ranked match, a pause you ask for costs you nothing.

No more solving from the app switcher

Leaving the app mid-match used to stop the ranked clock while the board stayed readable in your phone's app switcher. Now, time away from a ranked match counts once you're past a two-second grace period. A quick notification or a declined call is still free, and the timer flashes red when you return so you know time was added.

The rule of thumb: pausing hides the board, so it's free. Leaving doesn't, so it isn't.

A 3-2-1 before the clock starts

Ranked Match and Daily no longer drop you straight into a running clock. You get a short countdown to settle in — the board shows through, but the clock only starts at "Go". In the installed app, each tick comes with a little buzz.

A ranked match: accept, 3-2-1 countdown, then the board appears and the clock starts

Your Elo, over time

Your profile now charts your rating across the last 90 days, plotted on real dates so breaks read as breaks. Hover any day to see where you ended it and how much you gained or lost. There's also a new best-solve stat.

Hovering across the 90-day Elo chart on the profile page, showing each day's rating and net change

Smaller things

  • Fresher opponents: ranked matches now use recorded runs from the last 90 days only, so you're racing times players actually set recently.
  • Better-balanced Daily: difficulty is weighted 40% easy, 40% medium, 20% hard, with no more weeks of the same tier in a row.
  • Wide screens: a redesigned side-by-side layout, and a sidebar you can collapse to icons.
  • Public leaderboard: anyone can see who's on top, no account needed.
  • Feedback form: found a bug or have an idea? There's a link in the footer.

Thanks for playing — see you on the leaderboard.