In a big announcement on Monday, the New York Times said it has acquired Wordle, a simple word guessing game, for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures.
“As The Times looks to entertain more solvers with puzzles every day — especially during these anxious times — we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve acquired Wordle, the stimulating and wildly popular daily word game that has become a cultural phenomenon,” The Times said.
Wordle was created by a Reddit engineer, Josh Wardle, and launched in October as a free to play game. Wordle gives players just six guesses to determine a five-letter word that changes every day. It has soared in popularity in less than three months of its launch, attracting hundreds of thousands, then millions, of players.
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Players of the game share their scores on social media along with screenshots of the game’s distinctive grid. Following The Times acquisition, the game will continue to be free to play for a while.
Wardle initially created the word game, which he named after his surname, for his partner, who he’d known was a fan of puzzle.
Wardle told the Guardian this month that he felt overwhelmed by the game’s viral success.
“It going viral doesn’t feel great, to be honest. I feel a sense of responsibility for the players. I feel I really owe it to them to keep things running and make sure everything’s working correctly,” he said.
On Nov. 1, the game had 90 players. Nearly two months later, the figure ballooned to 300,000, according to the release from The New York Times.
“The game has gotten bigger than I ever imagined,” Wardle wrote in a statement on Twitter. “I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t been a little overwhelming. After all, I am just one person, and it is important to me that, as Wordle grows, it continues to provide a great experience to everyone.”
Since the launch of The Crossword in 1942, The New York Times has seen its game business rise exponentially. In 2014, the newspaper platform introduced the mini crossword, followed by Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles and Vertex. Together, its games have reached one million subscriptions, and were played in 2021.
The acquisition of Wordle will augment The Times’ growing games enterprise. Wordle has been praised for its simplicity. Times’ crossword editor, Will Shortz, described Wordle as “a great puzzle”, saying that “it doesn’t take long to play, which makes it perfect for our age when people have short attention spans.”
Jonathan Knight, general manager for The New York Times Games, said the game has done what so few games have done: It has captured our collective imagination, and brought us all a little closer together.
“As part of our portfolio of games, Wordle will have an exciting future with the help of a team of talented engineers, designers, editors and more, furthering the user experience,” he added.
Wardle said he’s proud that the game is ending up with New York Times, which has been part of its story from the beginning.
“If you’ve followed along with the story of Wordle, you’ll know that New York Times Games play a big part in its origins, and so this step feels very natural to me. I’ve long admired The Times’s approach to the quality of their games and the respect with which they treat their players. Their values are aligned with mine on these matters and I’m thrilled that they will be stewards of the game moving forward,” he said.