How to block NYT Games on iPhone

1. Turn Screen Time on. Open Settings → Screen Time. First time? Tap Turn On Screen Time, choose "This is My iPhone", and set a Screen Time passcode — pick four digits you won't type on reflex at 11pm.
2. Add an App Limit. Still in Screen Time, tap App Limits → Add Limit.
3. Select NYT Games. Apple sorts your apps into broad buckets and NYT Games sits with the Games apps. Tap the arrow beside Games to expand it and tick NYT Games only — or just type "NYT Games" into the search field at the top, which is faster. Tap Next.
4. Set the allowance. Choose how long NYT Games gets each day. 30 minutes is a soft cap; 1 minute is effectively off. Tap Customize Days if weekends should be different, then tap Add.
5. Turn on Block at End of Limit. Reopen the limit you just made and switch on Block at End of Limit. Without it, the "Ignore Limit" button hands the whole evening straight back to NYT Games.
6. Add Downtime for a time-of-day block. A daily budget isn't the same as "off after 10pm". For that, go back to Screen Time → Downtime → Scheduled and set the window (10pm–7am is the classic), then check that NYT Games is not listed under Always Allowed. During Downtime it's blocked outright — there's no allowance left to burn.

The honest catch: it works, but it's four screens deep in Settings, the limit resets its own way, and if you know the passcode you can undo it in about six seconds. That's why so many people set an App Limit once and never think about it again.

1. Create a Block Schedule. Open Paused and create a Block Schedule — that's the recurring, automatic kind.
2. Pick NYT Games. Choose NYT Games from your installed apps. While you're in there, add the rest of your games time-sinks too — Candy Crush Saga, Royal Match, Monopoly Go — because NYT Games is almost never the only one.
3. Choose the window. Set the days and hours: 10pm–7am so the night is yours, 9–5 for work, or 7–9pm so dinner and the evening stay phone-free.
4. Save it and forget it. That's the whole setup. From then on NYT Games turns itself off when the window starts and comes back on when it ends — no willpower, no remembering.
5. Use a Focus session when you need NYT Games gone right now. One tap starts a Focus session: pick a length — 25 minutes, two hours, until dinner is over — and NYT Games stays locked until the timer runs out.
6. Let the streak do the rest. Every day you keep the block stacks your streak. That's the part that keeps this working in week three, once the novelty of a fresh limit has worn off.

What it can see: nothing. Paused blocks through Apple's Screen Time (Family Controls) framework, so it can stop NYT Games from opening without reading your messages, your browsing, or anything you do inside the app. Your usage stays on your device.