The Washington Post tried to buy Wordle before the New York Times did
Wordle was a lockdown phenomenon: one of those games that, merits aside, simply landed at the right time. I've kicked the habit now but like pretty much everyone else I had a Wordle phase with the family WhatsApp group and, yes, when I'm nearly out of chances I have gone running to my six-letter friend Google. Wordle's enormous popularity was such that, in January 2022, the New York Times purchased the game from creator Josh Wardle for a sum «in the low seven figures.»
That was perhaps the most inspired move of a wider push by the gray lady to be a bit less, well, gray: especially when it comes to its burgeoning gaming section, which is now a major revenue driver for the paper. The NYT's games section is the subject of a new Vanity Fair feature, which covers the events around the game's acquisition.
The deal followed the Times publishing an article about the game's success in early January 2022 after which Jonathan Knight, a games industry veteran who now works for the NYT, took notice of how many messages he'd been receiving about the game. After playing, he came to understand the appeal himself. «The next morning I woke up thinking about the game as soon as my eyes opened. Solved it again. Thought: Oh, I can’t wait for tomorrow.»
Impressed by the game's ability to make players return, and the stats showing they did so in droves, Knight made contact with creator Wardle on January 5, 2022. The acquisition was announced on January 31. «I don’t think I’ve ever seen us move on an acquisition this fast,” says the Times' Alex Hardiman.
The NYT moved so fast, in fact, that it caught one of its most venerable competitors off-guard. The Washington Post has also been expanding further into games and Vanity Fair says, citing „two
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