Wordle is a word game where players get the opportunity to try and guess a daily five-letter mystery word in six tries or less.
The game is a new contender in the crowded word games category but has quickly cemented itself as one of the best. The acquisition throws Wordle into New York Times’ games suite next to other word games like the NYT Crossword, Spelling Bee, Tiles, Letter Boxed, etc.
Since its creator, Josh Wardle, a software engineer from Brooklyn, launched the game in October, it has gone on to amass millions of daily users. That astonishing growth gave it a hefty valuation, which led New York Times to offer Wardle a “low seven figures” deal to take it off his hands. The game will remain free under its new home at the New York Times.
During the game’s launch, Wordle had a loyal fanbase of about 90 users back in October 2021. By mid-November, the game was already up to 300,000 users, a 3,000 times growth in only 15 days. According to the Times, the game now has millions of daily users.
One popular aspect of Wordle is the feature to share results with others easily. After each game, a share button pops up that allows you to copy your results to your clipboard in neatly formatted text.
Players have been sharing their results religiously on social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit, giving the game some virality and contributing to its impressive growth trajectory. That’s only one of the many well-thought-out features, though.
The game also provides hints after each guess. A yellow tile in a guess means that a specific letter is in the mystery five-letter word of the day, but it’s in the wrong position. A green letter means you nailed the letter and the place. Using these hints, players can use logical deduction to make more educated guesses and eventually figure out the mystery word.
A million dollars is not chump change, even for a behemoth in the publishing world like the New York Times. But the buyout has reaped its rewards for the New York Times to the tune of millions of new subscribers in their Games and Cooking section.
If you’re a Wordle addict, you can visit our Wordle section for word lists and daily guides to help you improve your game.
