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New York Times Buys Popular Online Game ‘Wordle’

The New York Times Company has announced its acquisition of the popular online game, Wordle.

The Times said the purchase reflects the importance of games in the company’s quest to increase its digital subscriptions to 10 million by 2025.

Wordle was created by Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, New York, and the Times disclosed that it acquired the game from him for an undisclosed price “in the low seven figures”.

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The game first appeared on a seamless ad-free website in October and by mid-November it had amassed 300,000 users. It now has millions of players daily, worldwide.

Prior to the sale, Wardle, who created the game for his partner who loves puzzles, said the rapid popularity of the game was a source of anxiety for him, and he had begun to feel overwhelmed by the response.

“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,” he said.

He however said he took comfort in the fact that it had become a way for people to connect with their loved ones from wherever they are.

“I get emails from people who say things like ‘hey, we can’t see our parents due to Covid at the moment but we share our Wordle results each day’. During this weird situation it’s a way for people to connect in a low effort, low friction way,” he said.

The game can currently be accessed on www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle. The rules of the game are simple: You have to correctly guess the five-letter word of the day in six tries.

Start by entering in any five-letter word of your choice and the game guides you from there with colour changing bricks. A green brick means that the letter is correct in that exact position; a yellow brick means that the letter is correct but in a different position that it is currently in; and finally, a black or grey brick means that the letter does not appear in the word of the day at all.

Josh Wardlenew york timesWordle
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