The NY Times has purchased Wordle, a viral word game created by a Brooklyn engineer, in the low seven figures according to the company.
Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, released the guessing game to the public in October 2021. Wordle has exploded in popularity and has rapidly become a daily obsession for solvers. 90 people played the game on November 1. Nearly two months later, 300,000 people played it. Now, the puzzle has millions of daily players.
Wordle gives players six chances to guess a five-letter mystery word once each day and has no ads or membership required.
The Wordle game can be found at this web address but not at Wordle.com, which is an empty site and available for sale.
New York Times says its Games have captivated solvers since the launch of The Crossword in 1942. The Times experts create engaging word and visual games — in 2014 the company introduced The Mini crossword, followed by Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles and Vertex. Our games were played more than 500 million times in 2021, and in December, we reached one million Games subscriptions.
Worldle will join New York Times Games’s portfolio of original, engaging puzzle games. When the game moves to The New York Times website, Wordle will be free to play for new and existing players, and no changes will be made to its gameplay.
A NY Times game subscription starts at $5 per month.
“If you’re like me, you probably wake up every morning thinking about Wordle, and savoring those precious moments of discovery, surprise and accomplishment. The game has done what so few games have done: It has captured our collective imagination, and brought us all a little closer together. We could not be more thrilled to become the new home and proud stewards of this magical game, and are honored to help bring Josh Wardle’s cherished creation to more solvers in the months ahead,” said Jonathan Knight, general manager for The New York Times Games. “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.”
Josh Wardle says, “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.”
