Why can’t I correlate my puzzles (and puzzle rush streak) with my Online game rating?

I am rated 1800 in puzzles/tactics but am unable to correlate that to something like my rapid rating which is a giant gap downward in elo rating points. Is my skill in puzzle solving being undermined by my lacking positional understanding? If so how do I improve that? Or maybe the tactics in puzzles aren’t that common?

Almost everyone that does puzzles consistently has much higher puzzle ratings than game ratings.

It's a lot easier to find solutions when you know there's something there. It's a lot harder to recognize the tactics in games, calculate if they really exist, and execute successfully.

Add to that, getting into positions where the tactics are possible is harder and converting games is as well.

Instead of improving your playing rating, you could tank your puzzle rating to get them the same!

Seriously though, rating is not an absolute measure, it is relative to the population of rated players (or problems) for a given format. Because human vs. human games are so radically different from human vs. puzzle, there's no reason to expect ratings to be similar.

Puzzle rating in chess.com is usually 1000 points higher than your live rating in the site.

think of puzzles as long term improvment... you often do puzzles and see their results only a few months later, or when you actually lay off puzzles for a while... suddenly the games are easier in the same rating range and you don't think about the puzzles you did 2 months ago as the reason but they are...

try improving your solving method by not focusing on the rating or the green V's which actually assist you in solving... but take a notebook (I use the notebook app on PC) and write every branch of moves in the solution including the best responses by the opponent (in the puzzle). force yourself to do the not fun thing which is look for opponent's best try, not just your own tempting moves which will mostly work cuz it's a puzzle duh.

2. slow down from 10+0 and play 15+10 until you are 1000 (or when you start actually getting down to a minute in 15+10, which can be considered using all your time) then move up play 30+0, or 30+20, 60+0...

and any of these games are worth analyzing, because they won't have nonsense blitz like rushed openings you get in 10+0 or silly flagging which is also common...

3. learn some endgames.. super helpful all around also for general calculation not just playing the actual endgame.. at your level every time I did an endgame lesson on chess.com I improved and I didn't understand why but endgames give your entire game mojo... (I can now understand it's because it trains calculation of long forcing lines, which can then also help in middle games and openings)...

also don't forget about opening principles, fix any recurring problem in your opening by analysing and not repeating blunders (don't bother with heavy theory of course)