Wordle and the Times Purchase

2022

Date: 31 January 2022 · Place: wordle-game website, Twitter share grids · Figures: Josh Wardle, Brooklyn-based engineer and former Reddit staff · Palak Shah, Wardle's partner · The New York Times Games · Tags: Daily Game, Twitter Share, NYT Acquisition 01. One Word a Day Josh Wardle builds Wordle in October 2021 as a gift for his partner Palak Shah, who loves word games. He posts it publicly that month. By 1 November 90 people play. By 21 November 300,000. By the first week of January 2022 over two million people are guessing the same five-letter word each day. The breakthrough is the share grid. Wardle adds a button on 9 December 2021 that copies a spoiler-free emoji square pattern of the player's six attempts. Twitter timelines turn green and yellow. 02. Seven Figures, One Letter Off The New York Times buys Wordle on 31 January 2022 for a sum in the low seven figures. The puzzle moves to nytimes.com a month later, with users panicking about lost streaks and a controversial change to the word list. The grid persists. Wordle becomes the prototype for Connections, Strands, and every daily-game clone of the next four years. "Wordle 211 4/6." — the universal Twitter format, January 2022 Sources • The New York Times, 'The New York Times Buys Wordle' (31 January 2022) • The Guardian, 'Wordle: how a labour of love became an online phenomenon' (11 January 2022) • Josh Wardle, interview with Slate (5 January 2022)