Cracking the Cryptic

Cracking The Cryptic
Current channel logo
Personal information
Nationality	British
Website	www.patreon.com/crackingthecryptic
YouTube information
Channel	Cracking The Cryptic
Presented by	Simon Anthony Mark Goodliffe
Years active	2017–present
Genre	Puzzle
Subscribers	656 thousand [1]
Views	263 million [1]
Associated acts	Tom Collyer [2] Kurt Hugo Schneider [3] [4] Tantan Dai [5]
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2020
Last updated: 23 July 2025

Cracking the Cryptic (CTC) is a YouTube channel dedicated to paper-and-pencil puzzles: primarily sudoku, but also cryptic crosswords and other types of number-placement, pencil, and word puzzles. They occasionally stream puzzle videogames on YouTube.

The channel was set up in 2017 by two friends from England: Simon Anthony, a former investment banker, and Mark Goodliffe, a financial director. ^{[6] [7]} Anthony is a former member of the UK's world sudoku and world puzzle championship teams, while Goodliffe is a 13-time winner of the Times Crossword Championships and UK sudoku champion. ^{[6] [7]}

Each video is generally composed of one of the two hosts presenting a puzzle with given rules and then solving it in real time, with their live commentary. The channel features both standard and variant puzzles. ^[8]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the channel grew in popularity, and as of 23 June 2025 ^[update] it had 650,000 subscribers, with the most popular video receiving nearly 10 million views. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

The music played at the beginning and end of many videos is Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 16, nicknamed Sonata facile or Sonata semplice. ^[12]

Other activities

The channel has produced twelve Sudoku apps based on Sudoku variants: Classic, Chess, Miracle, Sandwich, Thermo, Killer, Arrow, Domino and Line Sudoku.

In October 2020, a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign was announced in order to produce a physical book with some of the channel's most popular puzzles. The campaign reached its initial target within 24 hours. ^[13] A second volume was funded in October 2022.

In addition to paper-and-pencil puzzles, the pair stream puzzle video games such as The Witness , Baba Is You , Blue Prince and Return of the Obra Dinn . ^[12]

References

1. "About Cracking The Cryptic". YouTube.
2. Anthony, Simon; Collyer, Tom (8 April 2019). World Class Sudoku Solver Shares His Tricks! (YouTube). Retrieved 19 March 2022.
3. Anthony, Simon; Schneider, Kurt Hugo (24 April 2020). This Puzzle Trick Is Not Cheating! (YouTube). Retrieved 19 March 2022.
4. "YouTubers Solve Sudoku With Simon: Episode 3: Kurt Hugo Schneider". YouTube. 10 March 2025. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
5. Anthony, Simon; Goodliffe, Mark; Dai, Tantan (14 February 2021). The Fastest Female Sudoku Player Ever (YouTube). Retrieved 19 March 2022.
6. Clinton, Jane (22 May 2020). "Suduko solving aces become unlikely YouTube stars during lockdown". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
7. Johnson, Tom (3 July 2021). "Fifty years of The Spectator crossword". The Spectator. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
8. Bellos, Alex (6 May 2019). "Can you solve it? Sandwich sudoku - a new puzzle goes viral". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
9. Usborne, Simon (22 May 2020). "Puzzled man solving 'miracle' sudoku becomes YouTube sensation". The Guardian . Retrieved 31 March 2021.
10. Schwartz, Nick (21 May 2020). "Watch this genius solve insanely difficult sudoku puzzles". USA Today . Retrieved 31 March 2021.
11. Marsden, Rhodri (23 January 2021). "Cracking the Cryptic: How the healing art of sudoku became a YouTube sensation". The National . Retrieved 31 March 2021.
12. Bell, Alice (7 September 2021). "These sudoku YouTubers are about to become your favourite game streamers". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
13. "Update 2: We've Funded!! Cracking the Cryptic's Greatest Hits". Kickstarter . Retrieved 31 March 2021.

External links

• Cracking the Cryptic's channel on YouTube
• "CTC Fan Server". Discord . Retrieved 18 March 2022.