Play, do

[From the New Yorker website.]

This phrasing surprises me, but a quick search confirms that play is a common verb with crosswords. Still, it’s never occurred to me to play the crossword. I do it, or them. Maybe do sounds a little lowbrow to The New Yorker ?

[Google: “play the crossword,” 892,000 results; “do the crossword,” 1,330,000. The Google Ngram Viewer returns no results for “play the crossword.”]