Archive puzzle · August 17, 2026

Major US cities by population

Archive plays are unscored and do not affect your streak or today's leaderboard.

About this puzzle

City populations are slippery because the number that matters depends on where you draw the line. City limits, urban area, and metropolitan statistical area produce three different orders, and this puzzle uses the official municipal population. That distinction is enough to scramble intuition: a city that feels bigger because of its suburbs can rank below a smaller city that swallowed its neighbors administratively.

Ranked largest to smallest population · population

What's in this puzzle

Listed alphabetically, without their values - the answer order stays hidden until you play.

Read the facts

Every item in a Sortations puzzle comes with the story behind its number. The Facts Library collects them all, already solved and safe to read.

Read the facts for this subject

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