The popular wordplay game will remain free to play, and the gameplay will remain unchanged.
The New York Times has acquired the buzzy, popular word puzzle game Wordle for low seven figures, the company said Monday.
Wordle will join the Times‘ other lineup of word games, including its iconic crossword puzzle, as well as Letter Boxed and Spelling Bee. Wordle will remain free to play, and no changes will be made to its gameplay.
Games have become an increasingly important business for the Times, with the company disclosing in December that it had reached 1 million Games subscribers. In fact, Wordle was created in part because Josh Wardle, the software engineer who created it last October, was really engaged with the Times‘ wordplay games.
“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,” said Wardle in a statement. “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.”
“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, GMfor The New York Times Games, in a statement. “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.
