Wordle’s million-dollar inventor Josh Wardle overwhelmed by huge puzzle payday

UK software engineer Josh Wardle is reeling from the sale of the wildly popular game he created for his girlfriend.

Wordle has become and internet sensation. Picture: Getty

Josh Wardle originally created his now world-famous puzzle for “an audience of one”.

And no one seems more overwhelmed by the success of the phenomenon that is Wordle than the British software engineer himself. He set out to make a fun guessing game for his girlfriend and ended up bringing joy to millions, one five-letter word at a time.

Now it appears that Wardle is ready to retire from the limelight, after selling the game for an undisclosed seven-figure sum to The New York Times.

From the family farm in Llanddewi Rhydderch, near Abergavenny last night, his mother, Tessa Turner, told The Times: “We’re very proud of him.”

However, although friends and family say that they would love to sing his praises further, they have to respect the wishes of the software engineer, who lives in New York and has asked them to say nothing more while he absorbs the scale of Wordle’s success.

The game challenges players to guess a five-letter word within six tries. One new word is released every 24 hours, forcing the online community to play at the same time.

Wardle is understood to have felt relieved to hand his creation over to the newspaper group, whose development of the app will now be followed closely by millions of devoted, and fiercely protective, fans. The game is free, and its new owner says it has “no plans at this time” to change that.

The New York Times Building in New York City. The New York Times announced on January 31 it had bought Wordle just four months after the game burst onto the internet. Picture: AFP

Wardle announced the sale on Twitter, thanking users for sharing touching stories about the effect the game had had on their lives and relationships during the pandemic. He said he was “thrilled” about the takeover, which has earned him at least dollars 1 million. The New York Times said the game was acquired for a “price in the low seven figures”.

“Since launching Wordle, I have been in awe of the response of everyone that has played,” Wardle said. “The game has gotten bigger than I ever imagined (which I suppose isn’t that much of a feat given I made the game for an audience of one). It has been incredible to watch the game bring so much joy to so many and I feel so grateful for the personal stories some of you have shared with me — from Wordle uniting distant family members, to provoking friendly rivalries, to supporting medical recoveries.

“On the flip side, I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t been overwhelming. After all, I am just one person, and it is important to me that, as Wordle grows, it continues to provide a great experience to everyone. Given this, I am incredibly pleased to announce that I’ve reached an agreement with The New York Times for them to take over running Wordle going forward.”

Wardle was born in Wales and attended the comprehensive King Henry VIII School in Abergavenny. He went on to study media arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, and has worked for the tech companies Reddit and Pinterest.

He built Wordle to entertain his girlfriend, Palak Shah, who “got really into” The New York Times’s spelling bee. “I wanted to come up with a game that she would enjoy,” he told the paper. Over summer he shared it with his family. He told TechCrunch: “They loved it so much that it derailed the family group chat, so we had to splinter off and create a Wordle channel.”

The key to the game’s success is its simplicity. Grey, yellow and green bricks tell players whether the letters they have guessed are correct – yellow is the right letter in the wrong place, and green is the correct letter in its rightful place. Once the puzzle is solved, players are able to share their own results on social media via rows of the same-coloured bricks but with the letters removed, so others can see how they did without having the puzzle ruined for them.

Jonathan Knight, the general manager for games at the New York Times Company, said that Wordle was “lightning in a bottle”.

The Times