In what’s possibly the biggest acquisition news of the day, The New York Times has announced that they’ve purchased the hit internet game, Wordle, for over a million dollars. The vaunted news site will add Wordle to its stable of games that includes its widely-recognized daily crossword puzzle and other games like Spelling Bee and Letter Boxed.
For those who aren’t already familiar with the game, Wordle is a strategic word game where players have six attempts to guess a random, five-letter word. Each correct letter in the wrong space will be highlighted in yellow, while a correct letter in the right space will be highlighted in green.
Wordle took the internet by storm earlier this year, jumping from a few hundred thousand total players to millions of daily users. Its success came largely from its social media connection, where players can share their Wordle attempts without revealing the answer to other potential players. It has become so popular that alternate versions have been created in its wake, including a smut-filled version called Lewdle from screenwriter and game developer Gary Whitta.
Wordle was created by Josh Wardle, a software engineer who wanted to create a word game that he and his wife could play together. He was inspired by their shared love of the New York Times crossword puzzle, an irony that is not lost on Wardle. In a statement released on Twitter, Wardle wrote “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.”
Since its origin, Wordle has been a free-to-play game that can be accessed from any browser. Both Wardle and New York Times Games have stated that, when the game moves to the New York Times site, it will continue to be free, but the language does suggest that it might only not remain free forever. No specific timetable was provided for when the game will make this transition.
Wordle can currently be played at www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/
