Wordle creator Josh Wardle sells smash hit puzzle game to New York Times

The hit puzzle game may move behind a paywall, despite its creator declaring just weeks ago that he’d want to keep it free to play.

Wordle has been sold to the New York Times for a ‘low seven figure’ sum, just weeks after its creator Josh Wardle declared that he would like to keep the game free. Picture: Stefani Reynolds/AFP

The creator of smash-hit puzzle game Wordle is selling his creation to the New York Times for a ‘low seven figure’ sum, just weeks after declaring he’d like to keep the game free.

Josh Wardle announced on Tuesday that his game will “initially remain free to new and existing players” – leaving the door open for it to move behind a paywall – and that existing wins and streak data would be preserved.

“Since launching Wordle, I‘ve been in awe of the response from everyone that has played,” Mr Wardle said in a statement. ”This game has gotten bigger than I ever imagined (which I suppose isn’t that much of. feat given I made the game for an audience of 1.”

“ … I‘d be lying if I said this hasn’t been a little overwhelming. After all, I am just one person, and it is important to me that, as Worlde grows, it continues to provide a great experience to everyone.”

Mr Wardle said the New York Times’ values and ‘respect with which they treat their players’ made the media company a good fit. The New York Times’ announcement reported the sale was for “an undisclosed price in the low seven figures.”

https://twitter.com/powerlanguish/status/1488263944309731329

“When the game moves to the NYT site, it will be free to play for everyone, and I am working with them to make sure your wins and streaks will be preserved,” Mr Wardle wrote.

Wordle will join a line-up of other daily puzzles at NYT including The New York Times Crossword, the Mini Crossword, and Spelling Bee.

“We could not be more thrilled to become the new home and proud stewards of this magical game, and are honoured to help bring Josh Wardle’s cherished creation to more solvers in the months ahead,” Jonathan Knight, general manager for The New York Times Games, said in the New York Times’ report.

Mr Wardle in an interview last month that it would be his preference for Worldle to remain free to use and ad-free.

“I don’t understand why something can’t just be fun,” he told the BBC. “I don’t have to charge people money for this and ideally would like to keep it that way.

“There are also no ads and I am not doing anything with your data – and that is also quite deliberate.”

Mr Wardle originally created Worlde as a gift for his partner, Palak Shah, after the pair got hooked on word cames amid pandemic lockdowns. The game was released in late 2020 but has recently exploded in popularity, with users sharing their scores daily on Twitter and Facebook.

Australian tech investor Nick Crocker told The Australian last week that any attempt to exploit Wordle‘s popularity for commercial gain would likely erode its simple charm.

“If you were going to set up a company that just owned the Wordle game, you’d be limited to charging people to play, selling premium features, or showing ads, and they’d all probably spoil the magic of it,’’ Mr Crocker said.

“It’s probably a hard thing to stop people copying; Scrabble didn’t seem to be able to stop Words With Friends.

“I can’t imagine as a software engineer the founder wants to try and play patent whack-a-mole with Wordle copycats for the next two years.

“But Wordle might be just a sliver of what the founder is capable of, and it would be interesting to see if more resources would unlock more of his creativity, and more wonderful games.”

Mr Crocker said Wordle was work “probably worth one times the total ad dollars you could suck out of it before it died... which would be a sad way to ruin something sweet, and simple. I think Wordle is best left as art and not commerce for now.’’