New York Times buys viral game Wordle for seven-figure sum
The New York Times has acquired the viral word game Wordle for an undisclosed seven-figure sum, the publisher announced on Monday.
Created by a Reddit engineer and launched in October, Wordle gives players just six guesses to determine a five-letter word that changes every day. The soothing daily puzzle has become a hit since its launch, quickly attracting hundreds of thousands, then millions, of players. Social media posts about its game of the day have become ubiquitous, along with screenshots of the game’s distinctive grid.
Josh Wardle, who created the game for his partner, who loves puzzles, 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,” Wardle said.
At the same time, he said, “it’s not my full-time job and I don’t want it to become a source of stress and anxiety in my life.”
The New York Times’ crossword editor, Will Shortz, praised Worldle as a “a great puzzle”, and noted: “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, told a Times reporter: “The game has done what so few games have done – it has captured our collective imagination and brought us all a little closer together.”
The ascent of a “pleasant little daily brainteaser” during the third year of a global pandemic has prompted many reflections on the joys of an earlier, more innocent age of the internet.
It has also fueled a tiny cottage industry of game optimization strategies, with mathematicians and linguistic
Read more on theguardian.com
