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Remember when John Kraskinski started Some Good News channel early in the pandemic and it seemed pure and well meaning for about a month before it got sold to CBS and we never heard about it again? Wordle just got sold to the New York Times. A mere week ago, we covered an interview that creator Josh Wardle did with Salon Magazine. He said he created the popular word game to play with his partner and that he didn’t want it to have ads, push notifications or even a link back to the site with the shareable score grid because that felt “spammy.” Enter the New York Times, which bought the game for a “low seven figures” and promises not to put it behind a paywall – for the time being.
The sudden hit Wordle, in which once a day players get six chances to guess a five-letter word, has been acquired by The New York Times Company.
The purchase, announced by The Times on Monday, reflects the growing importance of games, like crosswords and Spelling Bee, in the company’s quest to increase digital subscriptions to 10 million by 2025.
Wordle was acquired from its creator, Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, for a price “in the low seven figures,” The Times said. The company said the game would initially remain free to new and existing players.
Wordle — the name is a cheeky pun on its creator’s name — has had a striking rise. It first appeared on a no-frills, ad-free website in October, and had 90 users on Nov. 1. That number grew to 300,000 by the middle of this month, and now millions play the game daily, according to the Times announcement.
The rest of the article is business talk about how well The NY Times is doing financially. A lot of Twitter users are pointing out that The NY Times has been union busting and that workers had to strike to get raises recently. This is disappointing, but not surprising. It’s completely understandable that Wardle cashed in on the success of his game. In his statement explaining the sale (below) he said that he couldn’t keep up with the popularity of the game and wanted it to grow. The NY Times, as garbage as it’s been about both-sidesing fascism, does have great word games. What a shame, I heard Wordle was just getting popular on Facebook.
Oh and Wordle has an official app now. I saw an ad for it on TikTok featuring Jimmy Fallon.
An update on Wordle pic.twitter.com/TmHd0AIRLX
— Josh Wardle (@powerlanguish) January 31, 2022
the @nytimes spent “low seven figures” to acquire wordle, meanwhile @wirecutterunion had to strike to get $300k worth of raises for ~70 people
— Andrew Cunningham (@AndrewWrites) January 31, 2022
I have never seen twitter as immediately mad as it is rn about the NYT wordle buyout. the NYT took one nice and simple thing that a lot of people really liked, a dumb bit of fun in our exhaustingly dark times, and implied that they’ll stick it behind a paywall. exhausting.
— srečko kosovel fan (@mcmansionhell) January 31, 2022
The New York Times bought Wordle. Here's an exclusive inside look at the gameplay of the first answer they've chosen. pic.twitter.com/eOgDTeAiC4
— Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) January 31, 2022
Prescient
WATCH: Trump plays Wordle on Laura Ingraham's Fox News show in Saturday Night Live opener https://t.co/jYInzRS48z
— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 23, 2022
Header photo credit: Bruce Mars via Unsplash
When I first purchased my NY Time subscription I did it to have access to the crossword puzzle, then I found out I had to shell out extra money to have access to it. So that’s the fear here, Wordle will now be behind a paywall. At least with my WaPo subscription I can play the crossword puzzle and not have to pay extra. But congrats to Mr. Wardle, it’s a pretty fun little game.
Teresa, agreed. The NYT blocks its games from its regular subscribers, so I don’t have much hope for this situation. I play the mini-crossword, but it’s basically a diversion and not a way to exercise my mind.
The NYT Mini crossword puzzle is available to everyone for free everyday. I think Wordle could be set up the same way.
I don’t blame him, I think it would be hard to turn down that kind of money.
But I’m going to be annoyed when it disappears behind a paywall.
Agreed. It was nice while it lasted.
Don’t blame him, why shouldn’t he profit off of something he created? People complaining would never turn down a few million.
I subscribe to The NY Times games so I can play Spelling Bee. Won’t mind having it all in one spot.
The spelling bee is kind of addictive 🙂
Wordle and Spelling Spelling Bee are really easy today. Got Wordle in three and Queen Bee in about 15 minutes. I love when the puzzle gods are kind.
Queen Bee! I bow down to you! (I haven’t tried it yet today.)
He didn’t “create” it though? The word game Le Mot existed in French for quite a while, I hear. I haven’t played it personally, but many have been playing for years. He may have written a better app for it, but I feel like calling every incremental improvement “creating” is also getting exhausting.
This makes me so sad. It was a fun little game. Anyone could play. Everyone could win. I’m happy for the creator, but it feels like the joy has been suck out of the game. Maybe I’m overreacting, but RIP Wordle.
My husband is *obsessed* with Wordle. A friend of ours actually guessed the word on the very first try once, he was so proud lol. I look at it and feel immediate frustration (I’ll stick with my crossword puzzles, thankyouverymuch).
I only started playing, but I guessed yesterday’s word on the first try. That will never happen again!
I don’t blame the guy for selling, that’s life-changing money, but I’m sure the NYT will ruin it in no time. Enjoy it while it lasts and it’s free.
I started playing last week when I read about the game on this site – so much fun. I got a Times digital subscription thinking I’d be able to play spelling bee but then I found out I had to pay extra. Not cool.
I started when Celebitchy put up that post last week. The first 3 days I didn’t make it through the 6 tries (my story that I didn’t understand the rules is what I’ll stick with). I’m almost embarrassed to say that I feel good getting it right on the 4th or 5th try.
If it becomes a pay thing, I will be exiting stage left.
I have an NYT subscription and read it every day, but I don’t have the NYT cooking subscription (which is disappointing, but I’m not paying extra for recipes that I can find online – or buy a cookbook) and same with the crossword, my local paper carries the crossword, so I pay for that through that subscription. The NYT needs to make money, I get that, but they like to nickel and dime you… I LOVE the Wordle, so this is SUCKY.
Yeah I have the crossword version of the online NYT subscription. It used to include everything (even the recipes, which I used a lot) and then suddenly they cut off my access to cooking and to…some other section as well. I was confused and when I talked to customer service they were like “you weren’t paying enough to have access to recipes anyway “ which I think is a super crap attitude! I’ve found that if you google the name of the NYT recipe, there’s always at least a few other sites where you can find it for free, so that’s what I’ve been doing as I refuse to give them more money.
I don’t like this, BUT I’m happy for the creator of the game. Good for him.
My family and I just started playing it together. We are a bit competitive, so we post our scores in our group chat every day and it’s really fun. (I already got today’s in 2. Take that, dad!) If this falls behind a paywall, that’s one little thing taken away from us.
I got today’s in two too. I’m way too proud of myself- lol
Me too! If you get it in 1, that’s just luck. But if you get it in 2, that’s skill, lol.
The guy shared a fun thing that he had initially created for his wife. Millions of people have been enjoying it. I say props to him for getting a well-deserved payout.
I would sell too. Cash that check and don’t look back
That being said, this is going to kill Wordle
I get that he should make money but I wish he would have just asked for donations like Wikipedia does. He could have made a ton, hired employees if need be and keep it independent
Or he could have just put ads on the page. I wouldn’t have begrudged him that. It feels like a low seven figure sum was far, far too low an offer considering how many people play this game. He could have monetised the shit out of it, instead he sold it to a company who will eventually deny everyone access. It sucks.
Also, off topic. But is anyone else starting to solve these wordles a little too quickly, or have I just been lucky?
Just luck on your part, I think! It changes for me every day. I’ve been solving a lot in 4, but today it was 5. It all depends on your starting word and if you get close or not!
I never got good at Wordle and gave up out of frustration. (I know, that’s childish) I just didn’t pick the right words, I guess. I would go whole rows without a letter lighting up. Oh well, I’d do the same if I was Mr. Wordle.
I’m so happy for the game creator, but this news showed me just how close I am to my breaking point with COVID, lol. This is my one happy thing I truly look forward to every morning, and the fact that it will only “initially” be free to play and that NYT wants to create “added value” for players makes my heart sink. I’m so, so saddened by this news.
My love for Wordle is in its simplicity. It’s free, no ads, and you can only play once a day, so it’s delayed gratification (we have so little of that anymore). It’s the same word for everyone, so it creates a sense of community. I don’t need added value, and I don’t want people to lose access to it because it’s behind a paywall. I just want my simple little word game. It’s a small, good thing in these incredibly bleak times.
I think it’s so disappointing to people (“people” = me) because, exactly, a lot of the early goodwill focused on the wholesomeness of this game existing purely for the game’s sake. It felt life-affirming! Whatever the opposite of life-affirming is, is how the NYTimes acquisition feels. (Obviously I don’t blame the individual for making money, but I gotta say, calling him “Jason Wordle” is a Tim Apple-tier burn, lmao)
Everyone has to earn a living and good for Josh Wardle for getting his. I am disappointed for myself though because I have loved everything Wordle is: uncluttered interface, simple yet elegant, addictive but not time consuming, and pleasing to both the impulsive and methodical. Sure I’ve had to keep reminding myself that it is not the game’s fault that a lot of people who tweet about it sound insufferable. I’m just…well, nothing good lasts forever, right?
I started playing Wordle after seeing it here. It’s so much fun, I play with my 11 yr old. I found a similar game app ‘Wordie’, so far no ads that we must watch. Good for him..
I kept seeing people on my FB timeline posting this Wordle thing, and I had no idea what it was, lol
I got today’s Wordle in 2 so nothing in the news can get to me today. 🙂