32 ms·

The New York Times buys Wordle

902 points by lucis 5y ago

Freeboots 5y ago
I haven't really been following the Wordle story until recently. Has there been an in-depth breakdown yet of how it became so popular?
- twright 5y ago
  I think three parts to its popularity: 1) sharable, 2) streaks, 3) free. 1) I think this is the main reason why the game spread so rapidly. You get a neat little emoji grid every day that you can immediately compare against friends and strangers. 2) Only being able to play one word per day (quick to learn, long time to master) is really good at retaining a daily active user-base. 3) There are no ads, and most importantly, no account creation required. You just visit the webpage on the same device you first did and all the stats are in `localStorage`. NYT is notorious for not being able to do anything without an account so I don't think as many users will follow as they hope.
  - dehrmann 5y ago
    A few other bits. It's easy to learn, the daily format is habit-building, and luck. Lots of luck.
    - twright 5y ago
      Luck, absolutely! I got a 3/6 based on one yellow letter and it made my day!
tcpekin 5y ago
Congrats to Josh for a 7 figure payout - I just hope it remains as barrier-free as it does now.
- 1123581321 5y ago
  Wordle could be an effective free feeder into NYT’s more complex games and the game subscription. I hope they don’t inhibit that.
dankwizard 5y ago
And just like that, the fad passed.
- davidw 5y ago
  Selling out now was absolutely the smart move unless he had big plans to make some kind of Wordle-themed empire.
  - xchaotic 5y ago
    Agreed. Sooner or later the fad would have passed anyway.
eric_b 5y ago
> At the time it moves to The New York Times, Wordle will be free to play for new and existing players, and no changes will be made to its gameplay. "At the time" is the sticky bit.
- jordanpg 5y ago
  NYT has maintained several free to play games for years now. This game is equally trivial with several of them, for example, Spelling Bee. https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- DrBenCarson 5y ago
  1. There are a number of open source clones 2. If they want to spend 2M to build in features or integrate with their crossword, why shouldn’t they make something back on it? NYT making money isn’t scary. Imagine Microsoft getting its hands on this.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    But it doesn't need new features, or to integrate with their crossword. It's like adding truffle shavings and gold flakes to a hot dog. It misses the reason people love the hot dog.
    - defaultname 5y ago
      Wordle is basically the 2022 Flappy Bird. It isn't particularly fun or challenging, but there's a weird social experience behind it. That fades fast, and I would say is already fading rapidly. If he got a lucrative exit strategy, good for him (though it makes all of the moralizing around clones pretty nonsensical).
      - DrBenCarson 5y ago
tolien 5y ago
> "The company said the game would initially remain free to new and existing players." (emphasis mine) Guess that means a paywall in 3...2...
fells 5y ago
Does this mean as soon as I enter my second guess, I'm going to have a huge overlay to sign in to a New York Times account?
- alx__ 5y ago
  > The company said the game would initially remain free to new and existing players
  - paxys 5y ago
    "Free" does not mean free from advertising and upsell.
  - basisword 5y ago
    > initially Can't wait to phone them up to try and unsubscribe from my Wordle account some day.
    - 52-6F-62 5y ago
      I'm guessing it'll be bundled with their Spelling Bee and Crossword games, which is a separate subscription (and also easily cancelled).
    - js2 5y ago
      The unsubscribe process has become easier. Last time I unsubscribed–a few months ago–I didn't have to talk to anyone, not on phone and not via online chat.
    - Rebelgecko 5y ago
      Set your address to California when you buy your Wordle subscription
- tomovo 5y ago
  Think of all the brands with 5 letter names!
  - 5y ago
voxadam 5y ago
Paywall bypass: https://archive.ph/ShuaI https://archive.ph/ShuaI
- smallerfish 5y ago
  Or just click padlock in the chrome location bar, choose cookies, and block all cookies on the domain.
- kzrdude 5y ago
  Firefox reader mode also works. (It doesn't work on all their articles or in all circumstances.)
klohto 5y ago
Here goes the private, ad-free experience. Hopeful Wardle sold it under certain conditions considering he didn’t monetize when he had the chance. I know it’ll remain like it was for some time but eventually be monetized.
- meetups323 5y ago
  > Wordle was acquired for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures. Looks like he found a pretty solid monetization strategy.
  - crate_barre 5y ago
    A link to a html5 app in the App store on the wordle site would have made a lot more than that.
    - redisman 5y ago
      That would literally make $0. What are you talking about? Where is the revenue coming from?
      - kevincox 5y ago
        A lot of people would have paid a dollar to have it in an "App". I know you can add a shortcut on iOS but it isn't easy to find and people would pay to have Wordle in their "games" folder.
- databased 5y ago
  https://wordhoot.com/ https://wordhoot.com/ is a really good Wordle alternative that's private and ad-free.
greatjack613 5y ago
Oh man, another great game eaten by the big guys. Alternative - https://wordlle.app https://wordlle.app Anyone here care to speculate on the reason why we are seeing so many acquisitions in the game space?
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  There doesn't seem to be any reason you'd acquire Wordle in the first place. It's trivial to recreate it.
  - 0xcde4c3db 5y ago
    I assume that they're buying the brand, not the product.
    - TameAntelope 5y ago
      Yeah, I'm fairly confident they'll just reimplement it in their own app, as the code is trivial and honestly porting it would be harder. I wouldn't be surprised if someone at NYT already built it and has it feature flagged off or something.
eric_b 5y ago
I can't read this link, but presumably this is the same content without the paywall? https://www.nytco.com/press/wordle-new-york-times-games/ https://www.nytco.com/press/wordle-new-york-times-games/
glanzwulf 5y ago
Can't wait for the godawful monetization. Congrats to the creator, I would've done the same.
talawahtech 5y ago
> Wordle was acquired for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures.
lucis 5y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20220131213921/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/business/media/new-york-times-wordle.html https://web.archive.org/web/20220131213921/https://www.nytim...
d23 5y ago
Great job Josh!
mttjj 5y ago
I still enjoy "playing" this every day. I'm down to a 3-4 guess average. I suppose I'll keep playing as long as my Safari Web App continues to function the same as it does today. Once it no longer works or is locked behind a bunch of ads then I'll go back to doing something else for 10-30 mins every morning.
teen 5y ago
Wordle is too easy if you have a text editor and a scrabble word finder. Neither of which I would consider cheating... I think it's a fad unless they change the game up.
- evan_ 5y ago
  Baseball is too easy if the batter has a tennis racket and a motorcycle.
  - florkledorkle 5y ago
    That comparison doesn’t hold, though. You’d ground quite short with a tennis racket because of the give in the racket (which absorbs all the momentum in the ball that you’re using), and by the time you were to get atop the motorcycle to ride to first after you hit that ground ball, you’d already be out. I bet it’d be pretty close to a bunt or break the racket, honestly. Baseballs have energy and a big part of it is utilized in the hit to add to distance. Think about the inverse: hitting a tennis ball with a bat instead of a racket. Even with a perfectly placed hit it’s hard to imagine a motorcycle improving the run to first, too, and that gets even worse when you’re thinking about other bases. Going to first you have the momentum of your swing to help you get going too, particularly if you bat left. I’d honestly like to see that tried, because I bet a runner would win every time even if you made the rule touching with a tire instead of your body. I’m struggling to improve on your metaphor, though, and historically cheating has focused on other things like sticky balls to improve handling. I think it’s pretty hard to hit better with a different tool than a bat, short of making the bat bigger but keeping its properties. Maybe a treated 2x4? Corked bats come to mind too as something that’s been tried, and what that does to the bat and swing is interesting, but it pretty conclusively doesn’t make you hit better or farther (the opposite; we’ve played with it on my team).
    - evan_ 5y ago
      Fine. It’s easy if the batter has one of these: https://youtu.be/Puo6Vgcbxps https://youtu.be/Puo6Vgcbxps And we assume that the motorcycle is already started and warmed up and the base path is paved etc. etc. Also the batter has a gun.
cors-fls 5y ago
> Wordle was acquired for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures. Did I read that right ? Wordle was valued above 1M. It seems crazy from the outside but I guess I never realized how popular it.
- steve_adams_86 5y ago
  For what it's worth, I haven't played a game consistently for close to 20 years but Wordle stuck like glue for some reason. I've only missed two words in 3 weeks. It's kind of addictive. I might stop tomorrow, who knows, but it's interesting that I'm still returning to it day after day. I'm notoriously bad at picking up habits too, even if it's something I want to do.
  - yupper32 5y ago
    It's addictive but it's also impossible to burn out since it's just one per day. If it was unlimited I would have likely gotten bored of it day 2.
    - steve_adams_86 5y ago
      Absolutely, I would have too. I'd burn 30m on it and totally forget about it.
  - gigglesupstairs 5y ago
    You should try NYT’s Spelling Bee. I think it also has that daily coming back kind of attraction.
    - steve_adams_86 5y ago
      Ha, you're not kidding. That's really fun.
- akozak 5y ago
  Given their metrics (reportedly ~2M daily actives & growing) it struck me as cheap.
bowmessage 5y ago
Dordle is arguably more fun and won't be hidden behind a paywall in the near future :) https://zaratustra.itch.io/dordle https://zaratustra.itch.io/dordle
leifg 5y ago
Is there any IP attached to wordle? What was preventing them from paying someone to build a clone?
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  Backlash. https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/creator-wordle-copycat-app-says-crossed-line-backlash-rcna11903 https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/creator... > A developer who created a copycat iOS version of Wordle admitted that he was "wrong" to try to monetize the daily word game after he generated backlash online and Apple removed the clone from its App Store.
  - jeffbee 5y ago
    Kinda wild since it's just a javascript ripoff and slight mod of Word Mastermind, which was itself based on an older but similar game.
    - woobar 5y ago
      I think these two ideas made it a success more than some old games it is built on: 1. Whole world playing against each other trying to guess same word every day 2. Easy way to share your results without spoiling the game
      - codebje 5y ago
        3. An excellent design that lets you play without getting in the way
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - xtracto 5y ago
    I wonder, now that the original Wordle is owned by a mega-corp, would people feel the same if other clones appeared?
- 5y ago
paxys 5y ago
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1488264128422678535 https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1488264128422678535 > for a price "in the low seven figures" That's a lot cheaper than I expected, considering it has a dedicated daily user base in the millions. ~$1/active user is an absolute steal if you are just talking customer acquisition, let alone the actual asset and brand. NYT essentially just bought the hottest new social network. On the other end though, a single developer getting paid millions for a few days worth of work certainly doesn't hurt.
- OOPMan 5y ago
  Whether it will have that many users in a few months is anyone's guess. This feels kinda like the flappy bird craze, albeit a little less silly...
- tehwebguy 5y ago
  > That's a lot cheaper than I expected Yeah, same here. I would like to compare the most valuable numbers to something like HQ Trivia, which was far more expensive to run (even when they weren't giving away $X00k per day in prize money). Something very special about it, a few items that jump out at me: - No permissions nags or signup required - Massively popular seemingly overnight, despite no multiplayer features - Sharing your score is both cryptic / interesting to noobs and a big network factor - The one-puzzle-per-day part seems to put bring everyone together
  - zerocrates 5y ago
    Spelling Bee already is free and shares many qualities with Wordle: one puzzle per day, simple premise... I wonder if you see them try to add more "sharing" features to it. I see people share redacted screenshots of Spelling Bee every once in a while, but it's more work to do that.
    - thematrixturtle 5y ago
      The free version of Spelling Bee is limited: it cuts off once your score reaches "Solid", less than half way to "Genius".
mortenjorck 5y ago
Odd that they (understandably) don't disclose what they paid, but then drop the rather unambiguous hint of "lower seven figures." Congratulations to Wardle; not a bad exit for an ingeniously simple web-based game.
endisneigh 5y ago
i don't get it. wordle got popular because NYT publicized it, then they buy it. why would they buy it? They could've just cloned it in a few days with their team, no?
- gaws 5y ago
  > why would they buy it? They could've just cloned it in a few days with their team, no? It would be very obviously the NYT ripped the game off from the original, and that wouldn't look good. They had the money to buy it and did so.
  - endisneigh 5y ago
    companies rip things off all of the time. purchasing is hardly the only option, or even the best option.
- cm2012 5y ago
  They bought it for low 7 figures, thats a huge bargain. It would have cost them that much in developer time to build it, forget about the marketing.
  - swalls 5y ago
    What? Even a junior dev could clone Wordle in a day, maybe add a week for polishing the animations and such.
  - endisneigh 5y ago
    you have to be joking. you think it would cost 7 figures to recreate wordle?
    - cm2012 5y ago
      For a big company like the NYtimes, it would not surprise me. But in any case the built in audience is what they're buying.
    - 5y ago
zwieback 5y ago
Congrats! I'll keep playing until the paywall comes crashing down on my fingertips.
milemi 5y ago
It's a standalone js app and all the future words are in it. You can get a word for any date by setting your system clock to that date.
- alx__ 5y ago
  Yes, but there's little joy in doing that.
  - milemi 5y ago
    Until now, but sticking it to NYTimes might create some joy.
    - basisword 5y ago
      How does cheating yourself out of fun 'stick it' to anyone but yourself?
      - milemi 5y ago
        Not everyone finds the same things to be fun. Shocking, but true.
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  I'm guessing they'll jumble that around a bit and hide future answers when they integrate it into their app.
Graffur 5y ago
What exactly are the NYT buying here? Are they buying the traffic which must be quite large. Or are they buying users? Surely Wordle is a passing fad and, in a year, will retain less than 40% of all players playing right now. After that, how many are going to buy a NYT subscription based on this. They could have gotten Wordle recreated in less than a week. iirc NYT used to employ Rich Harris of Svelte fame so I would imagine they have the developer skills to recreate Wordle. Are they buying a brand? How can they make money off it? Is this a marketing/advertising play?
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  They're buying the right to slap "like this game? try our other ones! you'll love the $39.95/year crossword!" on the top of the real Wordle.
- endisneigh 5y ago
  they're buying ad-space.
- UncleMeat 5y ago
  > Surely Wordle is a passing fad and, in a year, will retain less than 40% of all players playing right now. I think you are off by two orders of magnitude, at least. The entire pandemic has been full of these flash-in-a-pan shared experiences. I don't get this purchase either.
  - joshuacc 5y ago
    What else? This is the only one that I am aware of.
    - behnamoh 5y ago
      NFTs are another example
    - pshc 5y ago
      Off the top of my head sourdough, Clubhouse, everything on TikTok, Animal Crossing, Amongus…
benoliver999 5y ago
I like the one-a-day idea, and that it's the same for everyone. However, the game itself is exactly the same as 'Lingo' - an old US show that still has a UK version airing right now. It has also had its own app for a while. It's amazing how a couple of extra touches can make something explode in popularity.
- username3 5y ago
  What are the extra touches for those who never played Wordle?
  - benoliver999 5y ago
    Well, there's no timer in wordle whereas in lingo you are against the clock. You only get to play one puzzle a day.The solution is the same for the whole world every day. Part of its success is the simplicity I think, and the fact you don't need an app.
  - klyrs 5y ago
    I think the real thing that made it go viral are the "certificates" it gives you for solutions, which get shared on social media: https://www.kaggle.com/benhamner/wordle-1-6 https://www.kaggle.com/benhamner/wordle-1-6
    - cryptoz 5y ago
      While that is a part of it, I have also heard that the virality was somewhat forced by journalists writing about wordle endlessly: as fans of word games themselves, journalists boosted its popularity in the earlier days, driving a lot of the 'viral' traffic.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    - superdisk 5y ago
      Can somebody tell me how to generate one of these certificates? I can't find a button on the page at all to do it and I feel like a moron, since everyone and their dog is posting them on Twitter.
jms703 5y ago
Whelp, it's now dead. Unusable as wirecutter, the last thing I used that they bought.
petermcneeley 5y ago
Does this mean Wordle was a free to play game? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish
habitue 5y ago
Nice job to the developer, this is probably the perfect time to sell. Honestly, I could imagine the price dropping by half in a few weeks as the fad dies down. Let NYT figure out how to monetize a simple easily copied game like this. I don't envy the team who is responsible for making this deal profitable for them.
- cbdumas 5y ago
  This seems to fit very nicely into the set of mini games they sell a separate subscription to. And if their own claims are to be believed it seems that they have already successfully monetized them https://www.nytco.com/press/both-cooking-and-games-reach-1-million-subscriptions/ https://www.nytco.com/press/both-cooking-and-games-reach-1-m...
  - ehsankia 5y ago
    Meh, other than the crossword, the other ones are fairly trivial games. Simon Tatham's puzzle pack [0] for example has 5x more games for free and ported to most platforms. [0] https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/
- xeromal 5y ago
  They have a games subscription that people like me pay for. I'd just consider this adding a bit of value to an already solid subscription.
- tptacek 5y ago
  The NYT makes money from paid subscriptions. Anything that increases the virality of their subscriber acquisition is going to make back a whole bunch of money. There are lots of people that subscribe to the NYT principally for the games, which Wordle fits into nicely. This deal makes perfect sense for NYT. I don't see it making sense for a lot of other companies (they don't already have an engine that you can stick games into and get subscriber dollars out of, and building that engine will swamp the cost of Wordle itself), but here, sure.
ChrisArchitect 5y ago
Ready for the NYT_First_Said to NYT_Wordle clue pipeline
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
cbdumas 5y ago
This makes perfect sense and fits in well with their games subscription offering [0]. I'll be sad to see Wordle go behind a paywall but this is great for the creator. [0] https://www.nytco.com/press/both-cooking-and-games-reach-1-million-subscriptions/ https://www.nytco.com/press/both-cooking-and-games-reach-1-m...
trollied 5y ago
It's insane that they purchased it - the game itself is a rip-off of a UK gameshow from the 1980s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(British_game_show) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(British_game_show)
clarle 5y ago
I think the New York Times got the perfect price for it, given that half the comments in this thread are "wow, that's a lot cheaper that I expected", and that the other half are "wow, that's a ridiculous windfall for just a few days of work".
nsv 5y ago
When wordle first started to rise in popularity, I saw a lot of comments that the one-a-day format was too limiting, and people would get bored and forget about the site because one puzzle doesn't offer enough engagement. I think that actually it had the opposite effect, keeping people coming back every day. It just goes to show that what people say they want, and what actually works, can be very different.
- zimpenfish 5y ago
  > I think that actually it had the opposite effect That's my feeling too - it's quick and cheerful. You know you can fire it up and be done ~5 minutes later with a nice little thing to post onto $SOCIALOFCHOICE and no need to think about it again for 24 hours.
- rtkwe 5y ago
  I think the shared puzzle and mystery aspect is what made it take off. You could gloat or moan very easily and everyone who played knew exactly what you were trying to guess and could compare.
- cookie_monsta 5y ago
  That was my experience. Somebody posted a clone here very early on that let you play as many times as you liked. I think I did 3 or 4 in a row and never went back. I still wordle every day, though. Sometimes scarcity is nice.
  - mromanuk 5y ago
    I feel the same about TV series, I tend to value more and be more mindful of content that is released weekly, than released at once for for binging. Later, makes me loathe it Paraphrasing you: Scarcity makes you value things more, sometimes in a good way.
    - cookie_monsta 5y ago
      The important thing is getting the dosage right. I feel like it's hard to get immersed in a show where I see one episode per week. I also find myself forgetting minor characters and suspect that I don't make as many subtle connections when I watch weekly. One wordle per day seems to be optimal, though - you get your fix but it maintains its freshness.
sjg007 5y ago
Ah so this is how they will get subscriptions.. dastardly plan!
Zren 5y ago
Link to the game: https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/ https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/ Pretty fun. If you read his homepage https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/ https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/ he mentions he created Reddit's "The Button" and "Place" April Fools games. Dude's pretty creative.
- weeblewobble 5y ago
  The Button was pretty cool. I really love the UX on Wordle. Can't really explain why but it's just so pleasant to use.
  - Scott_Sanderson 5y ago
    I didn't understand what the button was and pushed it right away lol
  - ryantgtg 5y ago
    The letter flipping reveal is a key component that adds to the joy of Wordle.
  - hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
    If anything I think Wordle is such a great example of how a simple idea, but executed pretty perfectly, can get traction. Things like: 1. The letter flipping, as another commenter mentioned. 2. How the keyboard colors the keys after your guesses. 3. The social sharing, with the simple (text only!) sharing of your scores. 4. The "once-per-day" nature of it. 5. It's all basically in a single static JS file! I don't have to wait for anything to load, don't need to sign up or login, yada yada (of course, I pretty much expect the NYT to fuck that up, but oh well, that always happens over time). I could basically see a ton of different iterations of this that wouldn't have been any where nearly as successful.
    - bikitan 5y ago
      > of course, I pretty much expect the NYT to fuck that up, but oh well, that always happens over time They have a number of free games that don't require any kind of account or registration. I am optimistic that they won't introduce any unsavory elements to it and turn off the playerbase it's amassed. Take a look: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords
TT-392 5y ago
Well, I guess it is dead
anusood 5y ago
I love it - have cracked the code so I get the word within 3 attempts. All about the vowels.
daenz 5y ago
I foresee this triggering an influx of kitschy word games trying to attain similar exits.
- tasha0663 5y ago
  I present, Flappy Words!
julienb_sea 5y ago
I wonder what % of NYT app users do the daily crossword. I would imagine its a very significant percentage, which likely is why NYT is interested in acquiring and integrating a new word game into their app experience.
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  NYT crossword has a different subscription than NYT news. I suspect increasing the number of news subs who also have a crossword sub is a major part of this acquisition. They'll start showing "play wordle on our crossword app" ads on the main app.
cletus 5y ago
This reminds me of another fad (Draw Soemthing). Zynga bought OMGPOP for $200M [1] right at its peak of popularity, shutting it down a year later [2]. Remember another fad: HQ Trivia [3]? I honestly don't even know what Wordle is. No shade on anyone who enjoys it. I just don't think anyone will be talking about it in 6 months. [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/03/21/zynga-acquires-omgpop-maker-of-draw-something/?sh=569bb7a42821 https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/03/21/zynga-acq... [2]: https://techcrunch.com/2013/06/04/zynga-shuts-down-omgpop-one-year-after-acquiring-it-for-200m/ https://techcrunch.com/2013/06/04/zynga-shuts-down-omgpop-on... [3]: https://productmint.com/what-happened-to-hq-trivia/ https://productmint.com/what-happened-to-hq-trivia/
- Buttons840 5y ago
  Check out out. It's a very simple word game that requires no login. No ads. You're probably right about it being a temporary fad.
gpas 5y ago
I remember when almost everyone here was against his choice to not monetize from the first day. Instead he released a user friendly app, no ads, no trackers. Great success, massive user base, huge money. Well played.
- redisman 5y ago
  7 figures for a solo dev game of such small scope is amazing, people here have way too high expectations. Most indie games make $0-10000
  - cableshaft 5y ago
    Raises hand solo game dev here that's never gotten above $10k revenue for a game I've released. 7 figures for something this tiny is amazing. Working on a game in my spare time that's still small but significantly more ambitious in features, with 3D graphics, animations, Twitch streamer features, cosmetic game unlocks, possibly online multiplayer support, etc, but starting to wonder if I shouldn't try just knocking out a few small puzzle game ideas I've been sitting on for forever and do my best to incorporate some of the natural viral mechanisms that were in Wordle (not really possible with those games to post different types of solutions and still not give it away though, that's a big part of Wordle's virality).
bitwize 5y ago
Well, I'm not as upset about this as I was about the Microsoft/Actiblizzard merger, but I just can't wait for those "You've used 3 of your 5 free wordles for the month" modal popups to show up!
daok 5y ago
Can someone explain me how come Wordle can be acquire since it is an implementation of another game called Lingo? Isn't there some copyright or other intellectual property belonging to someone else?
- lapetitejort 5y ago
  Rules cannot be copyrighted. I can make a Wordle clone right now and as long as I don't reuse assets/names there's nothing they can do about it. See also 2048, which is a clone of 1024, which is a clone of Threes.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - fouc 5y ago
    Yeah, the similarities with 2048 is uncanny. Too bad Gabriele Cirulli never got a similar buyout.
- fouc 5y ago
  I'm assuming the name "Wordle" itself is possibly trademarkable..
jacquesm 5y ago
For those of you thinking and commenting this was sold too cheap: that's a life changing amount of money right that, you won't be able to spend it if you play it smart. Keep in mind that wordle went from a cost to a net + for the dev in a very short time, and that there was no business model. Don't give up the day job, buy a chunk of real estate and 'level up' in one go based on a happy accident, this is found money. And if you think it is worth 10's of millions then you probably should have made a deal with the author yourself, easy money, right? Better a deal at a lower than optimal valuation than no deal at the best possible price. This thing may go down as fast as it went up, better to capitalize on it while it's hot.
- klyrs 5y ago
  It's enough to buy a small house!
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    That's life changing to a very large chunk of the population who don't make SV IT person money.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - klyrs 5y ago
      Indeed, a solitary exclamation mark cannot convey my feelings here. For much of my life, I've watched housing grow faster than my income, and I had pretty much given up on the notion before I met my current partner... with two tech incomes, it's actually within our reach. As a kid (circa 1990), we'd play "what would you do with a million dollars" with all sorts of fantastical notions, and as the years have gone by, the answer settled on "a house" and has now reached "a small house in a crappy location." Perhaps "a down payment on a nice place." I'm both happy for the creator, and sad about the reality of realty.
      - jacquesm 5y ago
shawnk 5y ago
What if we Come to find out his COUSIN runs the games division in NYT. Hahahaha classic story.
DantesKite 5y ago
They're not just buying the game. It's trivial to make. They're buying the social network that comes with it.
hwers 5y ago
Glad the guy made bank from it. I'd literally had a few worried minutes about the injustice of making something so viral and it not e.g. translating to more security health and happiness for his family.
dmillar 5y ago
I suppose we/(I?) should get started on an independent version. There's no way the Times doesn't some how paywall or otherwise ruin this.
VeninVidiaVicii 5y ago
Weird. Did anyone else think NYT already owned Wordle?
Rebelgecko 5y ago
TIL that Wordle is actually named after its creator. Can't blame him for cashing out at the peak.
thepasswordis 5y ago
https://wordlegame.org/ https://wordlegame.org/ <-- exists I actually thought this was the "real" wordle for about a week.
zacharycohn 5y ago
Irrespective of the acquisition, I do not think people will be playing Wordle to the same extent in 6 months - certainly not in 12 months. This is a great exit for Josh to get out at/near the peak of popularity.
- aroman 5y ago
  Sure, but Wordle was not a startup. It wasn't seeking an "exit". It was a fun project made by a guy for his girlfriend who likes word games. He shared to their family, and it spread. Not everything needs to be or should be viewed from the lens of startup, even if this is YC's HN. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-game-creator.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-ga...
  - zacharycohn 5y ago
    I didn't say anything about it being a startup. The fact that it wasn't a startup, and this guy turned a viral sensation into a lifechanging opportunity, is great.
    - aroman 5y ago
      Your comment referred to Wordle's "acquisition" and "exit", which is startup jargon. I agree it's great he's getting a financial windfall, I just meant that the absence of that outcome — no acquisition/exit, just a fun game — would have also been meaningful and valuable for the world. Linguistic relativity etc etc :)
hakanensari 5y ago
Everybody is now talking about NYT buying Wordle. Not that they would care about the cost as such, but they already seem to have recouped it, in my opinion.
jonahbenton 5y ago
Good for him, too bad for me, will not play it again.
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koolba 5y ago
The conspiracy theorist in me suggests this is a long winded way to prevent people from clearing their history to circumvent the free article limit, lest they lose their Wordle score. The technologist in me suggests he’s right.
- crackercrews 5y ago
  Same thought here. Now we just need a browser extension that can maintain your Wordle history after you clear cookies and history.
- ReaLNero 5y ago
  A well-timed X (stop page load) click can let you read as many NYT articles as you want.
rexreed 5y ago
How does the New York Times have all this capital to spend / invest / burn, while other media companies (especially journalism) are struggling so much just to keep their lights on?
- vmception 5y ago
  Being publicly traded with a sticky subscription model helps. NY Times is also part of AMEX's digital entertainment credit, so subscribers print revenue that AMEX reimburses them behind the scenes. NY Times gets to print high revenue numbers anyway, and the public markets trade that a multiple. So NY Times has access to capital to occasionally make a 7 figure purchase. Media properties struggle to find something for a growth strategy but they have access to capital, they just don't expect to continue to have access to capital which makes them have to cut things earlier, expecting gloom and doom.
- tptacek 5y ago
  Because local media is ad-dependent and the NYT makes most of its money on paid subscriptions. Media companies have been trying to pivot to paid subscriptions, but the NYT has for over a decade been premised on paid subscriptions online, during a time period where competing media companies hoped to stay free to subscribers based on ad revenue; they've managed to build a business that is essential enough that 8 million people subscribe to it, including during a long stretch of time where the modal media business strategy was "monetize eyeballs".
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  NYT did very well under Trump. Basically local news is worthless since no one pays for it since it's expected to be free and seen as "low brow". People don't mind paying to keep democracy strong which is what NYT paints themselves as doing.
- United857 5y ago
  IMO, New York is probably the first city most people associate America with, so they've been able to build a global media brand vs your local small town newspaper.
delgaudm 5y ago
Soon: SHOW HN: I sold my girlfriends birthday present to NYT for seven figures.
- cwkoss 5y ago
  I wonder if girlfriend is going to be given a chunk of those 7 figures.
jrochkind1 5y ago
«“I am a bit suspicious of mobile apps that demand your attention and send you push notifications to get more of your attention,” Wardle told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 [On Jan 5]. “There are also no ads. I’m not doing anything with your data, and that is also quite deliberate as well.” Wardle, explaining the reasons behind his decision not to monetize Wordle, asked, “Why can’t something just be fun on the internet?” “I’m fortunate enough. I’m in a position where I’m comfortable. I don’t have to charge people money for this. I don’t begrudge people if they’re making things and charging money for them online. That’s fine. But with Wordle, that was never the goal,” Wardle said. “And I would, ideally, like to keep it that way.”» https://www.marketplace.org/2022/01/27/wordle-the-global-phenomenon-thats-not-pulling-in-any-revenue/ https://www.marketplace.org/2022/01/27/wordle-the-global-phe...
- vmception 5y ago
  Wardle had a number
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crackercrews 5y ago
I imagine they'll probably let people play for free but try to monetize by holding back your score history if you're not logged in. Any other ideas on how they might feature gate this?
aiisahik 5y ago
Think of the payoff for the engineer per hour of work. Truly insane and impressive. Kudos!
i13e 5y ago
As a bit of a counterpoint to the downsides of NYT's eventual soft-paywall, I think that this fits their arsenal of games rather nicely. I just spent 30 minutes playing around with their catalog of free daily challenges and Wordle fits in very well objectively and aesthetically. I don't think it would have been feasible to expect the dev to pay for server costs of millions of visits per day for what was meant to be a project for his family. While NYT is Bizarro King Midas when it comes to acquistions, this is probably the best case outcome long-term. Link to try them yourself: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords
epa 5y ago
Might be a great buy for NYT, their crossword was historically a large driver of their newspaper sales.
hooande 5y ago
for what it's worth, I don't think the NYT will "ruin" Worlde. If they roll it into the NYT website there will already be ads and subscription solicitations all around it as part of the normal page UI. The game itself can still be free and relatively uncluttered. I doubt the overall experience will change much and they'll probably make their "low seven figures" back in a relatively short time. I'm over Worlde, personally. I started when it first showed up on hn a few weeks ago and stopped recently. It was fun, it was a little daily thing. but it's an easy game and I've moved on
alexb_ 5y ago
Truly, nothing in the world of tech is sacred.
intrasight 5y ago
"Low XXXXX figures"
Lamad123 5y ago
when you google Wordle, google header is animated in Wordle style.. I don't even know what this wordle is.
cwkoss 5y ago
The webdesign philosophy of wordle is practically the opposite of NYT's. Wordle is free, accountless, low friction. NYT will turn this into a subscription funnel, and it will lose all of its charm. I look forward to continue playing until it gets moved to NYT, and then dropping off as soon as they put up a signin gate.
- Spivak 5y ago
  It’s not so dire because you can continue to play “classic” Wordle forever — or well 2028 at least. It’s a static, front-end only app with a predetermined word list iterating in order.
  - chrisshroba 5y ago
    I'd imagine NYT could technically copyright strike anyone that hosts it, given that they've now bought the copyright to that particular arrangement of words. I wonder if it will come to that. This has an "Ethereum Classic" feel to it...
  - crackercrews 5y ago
    Is this confirmed? I'd would think that NYT would require him to take it down as part of the purchase.
    - bostonsre 5y ago
      If its static, you can just download it to your laptop and there isn't anything NYT could do to prevent you from playing it locally.
      - taurusnoises 5y ago
        Wait. You can download this game?? And, would it still function as once a day?
        jbc1 5y ago
dom96 5y ago
I don't know what it is but the hype around Wordle has actually made me not want to give it a try. Is there a word to describe someone that gets discouraged from trying things that feel "mainstream"?
- kayxspre 5y ago
  The burst of its popularity is one of the reasons I choose not to try it. Right now, I would see friends posting their guesses every day, and it's getting annoying. Since it was just a text and emoji, it acted like a normal status update and I can't just "hide all from this source" (as it's not an app/page) without hiding all updates of my friends that played it.
- paulcole 5y ago
  “wet blanket” works pretty well in my experience.
antisthenes 5y ago
How is different from 10,000 other browser-based ad-supported games? Wordle seems pretty primitive by comparison to some of those, and the only competitive advantage it has, is that you can share your attempts at guessing with friends. Also, they only have 2315 possible words as answers, so this is going to get really stale in a few months to a year. Seems not worth paying 7 figures for, but what do I know?
- kzrdude 5y ago
  The setup is successful (as evident), probably because of the fixed time schedule and only one shared global word per day. It becomes a common thing people can talk about. We need more common reference points like that!
jmpeax 5y ago
Beautiful lesson in just building something cool that people will love, and completely forget about monetization. If it explodes, the money will come.
United857 5y ago
The source code and word lists of Wordle is easily accessible, and runs completely client side -- anyone can clone and host their own instance if they want. https://reichel.dev/blog/reverse-engineering-wordle.html#looking-at-the-source https://reichel.dev/blog/reverse-engineering-wordle.html#loo...
- metaldood 5y ago
  Spolier alert. This page discloses the list of words
henvic 5y ago
Wordle tomorrow: https://twitter.com/henriquev/status/1488304923607552009 https://twitter.com/henriquev/status/1488304923607552009 lol
evouga 5y ago
I just stopped playing Wordle this week since I’ve lost interest (even on Hard Mode). Buying a fad at peak popularity is a strange business decision.
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agar 5y ago
How I hope the New York Times improves Wordle: > The Wordle URL moves to https://newyorktimes.com/wordle https://newyorktimes.com/wordle. That is all. How I hope the New York Times monetizes Wordle: > The Wordle URL moves to https://newyorktimes.com/wordle https://newyorktimes.com/wordle, and they add a small NY Times logo to the Share page. Clicking it takes you to the newspaper's front page. That is all.
grensley 5y ago
My mom loves Scrabble and Boggle and it's been really great sharing Wordle results with her everyday. Felt like we hadn't had a real societal phenomenon since Tiger King. It might just be a flash in the pan and gone in a couple months, but it's been the most wholesome one since Pokemon Go.
throwaway22032 5y ago
Is the game idea even ownable? I didn't think that board game rulesets were copyrightable, only the graphics. Can I just host a wordle clone and bot add the NYT's latest word every day at midnight from Twitter? Can you copyright "the english dictionary word that was used on Wordle NYT today"? I feel like the owner basically is laughing to the bank on this, they've bought.. a domain? The brand "wordle"? Even that?
- dehrmann 5y ago
  Sure, you can clone it, but you'd be competing with the well-known brand that's free in somewhere between two weeks and two months. NYT bought a user base that might be into crosswords and spelling bee.
jedberg 5y ago
I just realized the guy who made this is the guy who worked at Reddit and made “the button” and other stuff. So happy for him!
desireco42 5y ago
I think this is excellent purchase by NY Times and really good outcome for dev, so for both I congratulate and wish them the best. Wordle will find a good home in NYT and dev gets to enjoy money as well as fame.
axiosgunnar 5y ago
So will this post [1] replace the infamous HN Dropbox comment [2]? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29916899 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29916899 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
femto113 5y ago
Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it? "On March 21, 2012, Draw Something was bought by the gaming company Zynga for $180 million. The game's popularity peaked on the day of the sale, and the number of daily active users tumbled from 15 million to 10 million by early May." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draw_Something https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draw_Something
polished85 5y ago
Was there a way for NYT to make an exact copy of this game and just leverage their existing users and traffic to build a player base?
jbmny 5y ago
I don't know the ultimate fate of Wordle, but I'm comforted by the thought of thousands of programmers all over the world creating and hosting their own little versions and sharing them with friends and family. It's so simple that it practically begs to be implemented in whichever language you happen to be dabbling in at the moment.
MR4D 5y ago
Man, what is this - International Buy A Game Company Month? Smart purchase by NYT.
candyman 5y ago
It's funny but I've always payed for the NYT crossword subscription even though I tend to only pay for the NYT on the "trial" rate which I think is like $1 a week. I enjoy doing the crossword that much. I like doing the wordle too and would miss it. My day is mostly work so I really enjoy a game that challenges me and helps me get my brain going but also ends so there is no more playing. Crosswords and wordle are great in that regard. Could the NYT be on to something in gaming? I don't know that area but would be keen to know what gaming professionals think.
jbegley 5y ago
Here’s a free version in case the original gets paywalled: https://wordle.nyc https://wordle.nyc
allturtles 5y ago
What is the NYT buying here? If they paywall it or put ads on it, anyone can easily make a Wordle clone as long as they give it a different name and don't copy the original code.
lostgame 5y ago
Heck, it would be cute to see Wordle in the paper!
jlelse 5y ago
I hope this ends the hype. I'm a bit annoyed seeing Wordle guesses everywhere online.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
anshumankmr 5y ago
How lonng before the game is added to their subscription model (along with the Crossword)?
pontifier 5y ago
You've reached your limit of free... Awesome :(
morpheuskafka 5y ago
I don't understand how this game can be commercialized. Crosswords actually have to be written and the quality of the game relates to how much effort goes into making it. Anyone with a dictionary file can host a World clone. Not sayings its a bad game--its a great idea--just don't see what the value is in buying it. I'm not even sure what exactly they bought, it doesn't really have any monetization/userbase/IP.
- hpaavola 5y ago
  Comics of the new era. Just a thing which keeps some group of users coming to your site every day. Keeps existing readers happy as they can complete their wordle between reading news. New users trickle in slowly as they complete their wordle in NYT.com so easy to click to new section and get hooked. Just adding nyt.com link to the Share snippet will bring in some number of possible new readers.
- a1371 5y ago
  The obvious commercialization route I can think of is the following: every time you get a yellow letter you make an NFT; every time you get a green letter you make an NFT. Then you can provide zero knowledge proof to other people that you have all those NFTs, and compound interest over time. For the NYT it's all about supporting artistic expression you see /s
supernova87a 5y ago
I don't quite understand why the NYT didn't just create its own version of the game? Are the users so valuable? Is the game copyrighted? Is that a thing?
intrepidsoldier 5y ago
Everyone posting #Wordle scores this week will receive 10 instead of 5 free NYT articles for the next three months. Paid NYT subscription will entitle you to a daily email (at midnight your time) with daily Wordle answer and a recommended random sequence to post on social.
kiru_io 5y ago
I made clone for math, the UX is inspired by Wordle. Can NYT threat any legal action against the (free or paid) clones?
- matsemann 5y ago
  No, they don't own the concept. They own their specific implementation, and the name Wordle. (So you can't name it "MathWordle" for instance) Or, they could always threat. But only way they'd win is if it's a straight clone (graphics and all), and/or uses the Wordle name to piggyback on that. Just see how many match-three games there are. The concept anyone can use, don't name your game candy crush and you're fine.
shetill 5y ago
Guy gets a million from some hobby game never has to work again, I'm here grinding the 9-5 like an absolute idiot
animal531 5y ago
But the problem for me is that it seems he didn't invent it. Five years ago this guy built this exact game, also called Wordle: https://twitter.com/StevenCravotta/status/1481318799160733700/ https://twitter.com/StevenCravotta/status/148131879916073370... He reached out to Josh Wardle to donate the profit he was suddenly making to charity etc. It took some time but eventually Josh responded. Now that Josh has sold his copycat game I wonder if he's going to share the income?
- davidweatherall 5y ago
  Steven's app in that tweet is completely different [0], the reason he reached out to Josh wasn't because it was the same app, it was because he was unintentionally getting the traffic that should've been going to Josh just due to a name clash and didn't want to profit off of accidentally "deceiving" users. [0] - https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/wordle/id1095569891 https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/wordle/id1095569891
- d23 5y ago
  Did you read your link? Your summary is incomprehensibly misleading.
needle0 5y ago
Considering Zynga paid over $50 million to buy Words With Friends [1] back in 2011, the price seems awfully low. Then again, who knows, maybe the creator is simply indifferent to worldly gain, considering he didn't even bother to include a URL in the social share string simply because it looked "trashy." [2] [1]: https://venturebeat.com/2011/07/05/zynga-paid-53-3m-to-buy-words-with-friends-mobile-game-maker-newtoy/ https://venturebeat.com/2011/07/05/zynga-paid-53-3m-to-buy-w... [2]: https://www.famitsu.com/news/202201/07247076.html https://www.famitsu.com/news/202201/07247076.html
danparsonson 5y ago
Pro tip: the entire game is self-contained within the page that you download, so you can take an offline copy - you know, in case it happens to change for the worst in future...
m4tthumphrey 5y ago
Just heard of Wordle due to this thread. I am not sure if it exists outside of the UK (it must do!) but the mechanics of this game are pretty much the same as the Mastermind board game[0]. Instead of coloured pegs, its 5 letter words. Very cool. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game)
- llimos 5y ago
  With the quite significant difference that the words have to be real words
Nowlook 5y ago
Adversarial Wordle is great. More difficult than Wordle but same old game. Evil Wordle is another one worth looking at.
etempleton 5y ago
It feels like an insane amount of money for something that I cannot imagine anyone talking about in a few weeks. My understanding is also that this is not a particularly new game, that there are other games just like it that have come and gone. If that is the case than all NYT is really buying is the name, which, admittedly, is pretty good.
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902 points by lucis 5y ago

I haven't really been following the Wordle story until recently. Has there been an in-depth breakdown yet of how it became so popular?

twright 5y ago
I think three parts to its popularity: 1) sharable, 2) streaks, 3) free. 1) I think this is the main reason why the game spread so rapidly. You get a neat little emoji grid every day that you can immediately compare against friends and strangers. 2) Only being able to play one word per day (quick to learn, long time to master) is really good at retaining a daily active user-base. 3) There are no ads, and most importantly, no account creation required. You just visit the webpage on the same device you first did and all the stats are in `localStorage`. NYT is notorious for not being able to do anything without an account so I don't think as many users will follow as they hope.
- dehrmann 5y ago
  A few other bits. It's easy to learn, the daily format is habit-building, and luck. Lots of luck.
  - twright 5y ago
    Luck, absolutely! I got a 3/6 based on one yellow letter and it made my day!

tcpekin 5y ago

Congrats to Josh for a 7 figure payout - I just hope it remains as barrier-free as it does now.

1123581321 5y ago
Wordle could be an effective free feeder into NYT’s more complex games and the game subscription. I hope they don’t inhibit that.

dankwizard 5y ago

And just like that, the fad passed.

davidw 5y ago
Selling out now was absolutely the smart move unless he had big plans to make some kind of Wordle-themed empire.
- xchaotic 5y ago
  Agreed. Sooner or later the fad would have passed anyway.

eric_b 5y ago

> At the time it moves to The New York Times, Wordle will be free to play for new and existing players, and no changes will be made to its gameplay. "At the time" is the sticky bit.

jordanpg 5y ago
NYT has maintained several free to play games for years now. This game is equally trivial with several of them, for example, Spelling Bee. https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords
- deleted 5y ago
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DrBenCarson 5y ago
1. There are a number of open source clones 2. If they want to spend 2M to build in features or integrate with their crossword, why shouldn’t they make something back on it? NYT making money isn’t scary. Imagine Microsoft getting its hands on this.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  But it doesn't need new features, or to integrate with their crossword. It's like adding truffle shavings and gold flakes to a hot dog. It misses the reason people love the hot dog.
  - defaultname 5y ago
    Wordle is basically the 2022 Flappy Bird. It isn't particularly fun or challenging, but there's a weird social experience behind it. That fades fast, and I would say is already fading rapidly. If he got a lucrative exit strategy, good for him (though it makes all of the moralizing around clones pretty nonsensical).
    - DrBenCarson 5y ago

tolien 5y ago

> "The company said the game would initially remain free to new and existing players." (emphasis mine) Guess that means a paywall in 3...2...

fells 5y ago

Does this mean as soon as I enter my second guess, I'm going to have a huge overlay to sign in to a New York Times account?

alx__ 5y ago
> The company said the game would initially remain free to new and existing players
- paxys 5y ago
  "Free" does not mean free from advertising and upsell.
- basisword 5y ago
  > initially Can't wait to phone them up to try and unsubscribe from my Wordle account some day.
  - 52-6F-62 5y ago
    I'm guessing it'll be bundled with their Spelling Bee and Crossword games, which is a separate subscription (and also easily cancelled).
  - js2 5y ago
    The unsubscribe process has become easier. Last time I unsubscribed–a few months ago–I didn't have to talk to anyone, not on phone and not via online chat.
  - Rebelgecko 5y ago
    Set your address to California when you buy your Wordle subscription
tomovo 5y ago
Think of all the brands with 5 letter names!
- 5y ago

voxadam 5y ago

Paywall bypass: https://archive.ph/ShuaI https://archive.ph/ShuaI

smallerfish 5y ago
Or just click padlock in the chrome location bar, choose cookies, and block all cookies on the domain.
kzrdude 5y ago
Firefox reader mode also works. (It doesn't work on all their articles or in all circumstances.)

klohto 5y ago

Here goes the private, ad-free experience. Hopeful Wardle sold it under certain conditions considering he didn’t monetize when he had the chance. I know it’ll remain like it was for some time but eventually be monetized.

meetups323 5y ago
> Wordle was acquired for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures. Looks like he found a pretty solid monetization strategy.
- crate_barre 5y ago
  A link to a html5 app in the App store on the wordle site would have made a lot more than that.
  - redisman 5y ago
    That would literally make $0. What are you talking about? Where is the revenue coming from?
    - kevincox 5y ago
      A lot of people would have paid a dollar to have it in an "App". I know you can add a shortcut on iOS but it isn't easy to find and people would pay to have Wordle in their "games" folder.
databased 5y ago
https://wordhoot.com/ https://wordhoot.com/ is a really good Wordle alternative that's private and ad-free.

greatjack613 5y ago

Oh man, another great game eaten by the big guys. Alternative - https://wordlle.app https://wordlle.app Anyone here care to speculate on the reason why we are seeing so many acquisitions in the game space?

thaumasiotes 5y ago
There doesn't seem to be any reason you'd acquire Wordle in the first place. It's trivial to recreate it.
- 0xcde4c3db 5y ago
  I assume that they're buying the brand, not the product.
  - TameAntelope 5y ago
    Yeah, I'm fairly confident they'll just reimplement it in their own app, as the code is trivial and honestly porting it would be harder. I wouldn't be surprised if someone at NYT already built it and has it feature flagged off or something.

eric_b 5y ago

I can't read this link, but presumably this is the same content without the paywall? https://www.nytco.com/press/wordle-new-york-times-games/ https://www.nytco.com/press/wordle-new-york-times-games/

glanzwulf 5y ago

Can't wait for the godawful monetization. Congrats to the creator, I would've done the same.

talawahtech 5y ago

> Wordle was acquired for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures.

lucis 5y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20220131213921/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/business/media/new-york-times-wordle.html https://web.archive.org/web/20220131213921/https://www.nytim...

d23 5y ago

Great job Josh!

mttjj 5y ago

I still enjoy "playing" this every day. I'm down to a 3-4 guess average. I suppose I'll keep playing as long as my Safari Web App continues to function the same as it does today. Once it no longer works or is locked behind a bunch of ads then I'll go back to doing something else for 10-30 mins every morning.

teen 5y ago

Wordle is too easy if you have a text editor and a scrabble word finder. Neither of which I would consider cheating... I think it's a fad unless they change the game up.

evan_ 5y ago
Baseball is too easy if the batter has a tennis racket and a motorcycle.
- florkledorkle 5y ago
  That comparison doesn’t hold, though. You’d ground quite short with a tennis racket because of the give in the racket (which absorbs all the momentum in the ball that you’re using), and by the time you were to get atop the motorcycle to ride to first after you hit that ground ball, you’d already be out. I bet it’d be pretty close to a bunt or break the racket, honestly. Baseballs have energy and a big part of it is utilized in the hit to add to distance. Think about the inverse: hitting a tennis ball with a bat instead of a racket. Even with a perfectly placed hit it’s hard to imagine a motorcycle improving the run to first, too, and that gets even worse when you’re thinking about other bases. Going to first you have the momentum of your swing to help you get going too, particularly if you bat left. I’d honestly like to see that tried, because I bet a runner would win every time even if you made the rule touching with a tire instead of your body. I’m struggling to improve on your metaphor, though, and historically cheating has focused on other things like sticky balls to improve handling. I think it’s pretty hard to hit better with a different tool than a bat, short of making the bat bigger but keeping its properties. Maybe a treated 2x4? Corked bats come to mind too as something that’s been tried, and what that does to the bat and swing is interesting, but it pretty conclusively doesn’t make you hit better or farther (the opposite; we’ve played with it on my team).
  - evan_ 5y ago
    Fine. It’s easy if the batter has one of these: https://youtu.be/Puo6Vgcbxps https://youtu.be/Puo6Vgcbxps And we assume that the motorcycle is already started and warmed up and the base path is paved etc. etc. Also the batter has a gun.

cors-fls 5y ago

> Wordle was acquired for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures. Did I read that right ? Wordle was valued above 1M. It seems crazy from the outside but I guess I never realized how popular it.

steve_adams_86 5y ago
For what it's worth, I haven't played a game consistently for close to 20 years but Wordle stuck like glue for some reason. I've only missed two words in 3 weeks. It's kind of addictive. I might stop tomorrow, who knows, but it's interesting that I'm still returning to it day after day. I'm notoriously bad at picking up habits too, even if it's something I want to do.
- yupper32 5y ago
  It's addictive but it's also impossible to burn out since it's just one per day. If it was unlimited I would have likely gotten bored of it day 2.
  - steve_adams_86 5y ago
    Absolutely, I would have too. I'd burn 30m on it and totally forget about it.
- gigglesupstairs 5y ago
  You should try NYT’s Spelling Bee. I think it also has that daily coming back kind of attraction.
  - steve_adams_86 5y ago
    Ha, you're not kidding. That's really fun.
akozak 5y ago
Given their metrics (reportedly ~2M daily actives & growing) it struck me as cheap.

bowmessage 5y ago

Dordle is arguably more fun and won't be hidden behind a paywall in the near future :) https://zaratustra.itch.io/dordle https://zaratustra.itch.io/dordle

leifg 5y ago

Is there any IP attached to wordle? What was preventing them from paying someone to build a clone?

ceejayoz 5y ago
Backlash. https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/creator-wordle-copycat-app-says-crossed-line-backlash-rcna11903 https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/creator... > A developer who created a copycat iOS version of Wordle admitted that he was "wrong" to try to monetize the daily word game after he generated backlash online and Apple removed the clone from its App Store.
- jeffbee 5y ago
  Kinda wild since it's just a javascript ripoff and slight mod of Word Mastermind, which was itself based on an older but similar game.
  - woobar 5y ago
    I think these two ideas made it a success more than some old games it is built on: 1. Whole world playing against each other trying to guess same word every day 2. Easy way to share your results without spoiling the game
    - codebje 5y ago
      3. An excellent design that lets you play without getting in the way
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- xtracto 5y ago
  I wonder, now that the original Wordle is owned by a mega-corp, would people feel the same if other clones appeared?
5y ago

paxys 5y ago

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1488264128422678535 https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1488264128422678535 > for a price "in the low seven figures" That's a lot cheaper than I expected, considering it has a dedicated daily user base in the millions. ~$1/active user is an absolute steal if you are just talking customer acquisition, let alone the actual asset and brand. NYT essentially just bought the hottest new social network. On the other end though, a single developer getting paid millions for a few days worth of work certainly doesn't hurt.

OOPMan 5y ago
Whether it will have that many users in a few months is anyone's guess. This feels kinda like the flappy bird craze, albeit a little less silly...
tehwebguy 5y ago
> That's a lot cheaper than I expected Yeah, same here. I would like to compare the most valuable numbers to something like HQ Trivia, which was far more expensive to run (even when they weren't giving away $X00k per day in prize money). Something very special about it, a few items that jump out at me: - No permissions nags or signup required - Massively popular seemingly overnight, despite no multiplayer features - Sharing your score is both cryptic / interesting to noobs and a big network factor - The one-puzzle-per-day part seems to put bring everyone together
- zerocrates 5y ago
  Spelling Bee already is free and shares many qualities with Wordle: one puzzle per day, simple premise... I wonder if you see them try to add more "sharing" features to it. I see people share redacted screenshots of Spelling Bee every once in a while, but it's more work to do that.
  - thematrixturtle 5y ago
    The free version of Spelling Bee is limited: it cuts off once your score reaches "Solid", less than half way to "Genius".

mortenjorck 5y ago

Odd that they (understandably) don't disclose what they paid, but then drop the rather unambiguous hint of "lower seven figures." Congratulations to Wardle; not a bad exit for an ingeniously simple web-based game.

endisneigh 5y ago

i don't get it. wordle got popular because NYT publicized it, then they buy it. why would they buy it? They could've just cloned it in a few days with their team, no?

gaws 5y ago
> why would they buy it? They could've just cloned it in a few days with their team, no? It would be very obviously the NYT ripped the game off from the original, and that wouldn't look good. They had the money to buy it and did so.
- endisneigh 5y ago
  companies rip things off all of the time. purchasing is hardly the only option, or even the best option.
cm2012 5y ago
They bought it for low 7 figures, thats a huge bargain. It would have cost them that much in developer time to build it, forget about the marketing.
- swalls 5y ago
  What? Even a junior dev could clone Wordle in a day, maybe add a week for polishing the animations and such.
- endisneigh 5y ago
  you have to be joking. you think it would cost 7 figures to recreate wordle?
  - cm2012 5y ago
    For a big company like the NYtimes, it would not surprise me. But in any case the built in audience is what they're buying.
  - 5y ago

zwieback 5y ago

Congrats! I'll keep playing until the paywall comes crashing down on my fingertips.

milemi 5y ago

It's a standalone js app and all the future words are in it. You can get a word for any date by setting your system clock to that date.

alx__ 5y ago
Yes, but there's little joy in doing that.
- milemi 5y ago
  Until now, but sticking it to NYTimes might create some joy.
  - basisword 5y ago
    How does cheating yourself out of fun 'stick it' to anyone but yourself?
    - milemi 5y ago
      Not everyone finds the same things to be fun. Shocking, but true.
TameAntelope 5y ago
I'm guessing they'll jumble that around a bit and hide future answers when they integrate it into their app.

Graffur 5y ago

What exactly are the NYT buying here? Are they buying the traffic which must be quite large. Or are they buying users? Surely Wordle is a passing fad and, in a year, will retain less than 40% of all players playing right now. After that, how many are going to buy a NYT subscription based on this. They could have gotten Wordle recreated in less than a week. iirc NYT used to employ Rich Harris of Svelte fame so I would imagine they have the developer skills to recreate Wordle. Are they buying a brand? How can they make money off it? Is this a marketing/advertising play?

ceejayoz 5y ago
They're buying the right to slap "like this game? try our other ones! you'll love the $39.95/year crossword!" on the top of the real Wordle.
endisneigh 5y ago
they're buying ad-space.
UncleMeat 5y ago
> Surely Wordle is a passing fad and, in a year, will retain less than 40% of all players playing right now. I think you are off by two orders of magnitude, at least. The entire pandemic has been full of these flash-in-a-pan shared experiences. I don't get this purchase either.
- joshuacc 5y ago
  What else? This is the only one that I am aware of.
  - behnamoh 5y ago
    NFTs are another example
  - pshc 5y ago
    Off the top of my head sourdough, Clubhouse, everything on TikTok, Animal Crossing, Amongus…

benoliver999 5y ago

I like the one-a-day idea, and that it's the same for everyone. However, the game itself is exactly the same as 'Lingo' - an old US show that still has a UK version airing right now. It has also had its own app for a while. It's amazing how a couple of extra touches can make something explode in popularity.

username3 5y ago
What are the extra touches for those who never played Wordle?
- benoliver999 5y ago
  Well, there's no timer in wordle whereas in lingo you are against the clock. You only get to play one puzzle a day.The solution is the same for the whole world every day. Part of its success is the simplicity I think, and the fact you don't need an app.
- klyrs 5y ago
  I think the real thing that made it go viral are the "certificates" it gives you for solutions, which get shared on social media: https://www.kaggle.com/benhamner/wordle-1-6 https://www.kaggle.com/benhamner/wordle-1-6
  - cryptoz 5y ago
    While that is a part of it, I have also heard that the virality was somewhat forced by journalists writing about wordle endlessly: as fans of word games themselves, journalists boosted its popularity in the earlier days, driving a lot of the 'viral' traffic.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - superdisk 5y ago
    Can somebody tell me how to generate one of these certificates? I can't find a button on the page at all to do it and I feel like a moron, since everyone and their dog is posting them on Twitter.

jms703 5y ago

Whelp, it's now dead. Unusable as wirecutter, the last thing I used that they bought.

petermcneeley 5y ago

Does this mean Wordle was a free to play game? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglerfish

habitue 5y ago

Nice job to the developer, this is probably the perfect time to sell. Honestly, I could imagine the price dropping by half in a few weeks as the fad dies down. Let NYT figure out how to monetize a simple easily copied game like this. I don't envy the team who is responsible for making this deal profitable for them.

cbdumas 5y ago
This seems to fit very nicely into the set of mini games they sell a separate subscription to. And if their own claims are to be believed it seems that they have already successfully monetized them https://www.nytco.com/press/both-cooking-and-games-reach-1-million-subscriptions/ https://www.nytco.com/press/both-cooking-and-games-reach-1-m...
- ehsankia 5y ago
  Meh, other than the crossword, the other ones are fairly trivial games. Simon Tatham's puzzle pack [0] for example has 5x more games for free and ported to most platforms. [0] https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/
xeromal 5y ago
They have a games subscription that people like me pay for. I'd just consider this adding a bit of value to an already solid subscription.
tptacek 5y ago
The NYT makes money from paid subscriptions. Anything that increases the virality of their subscriber acquisition is going to make back a whole bunch of money. There are lots of people that subscribe to the NYT principally for the games, which Wordle fits into nicely. This deal makes perfect sense for NYT. I don't see it making sense for a lot of other companies (they don't already have an engine that you can stick games into and get subscriber dollars out of, and building that engine will swamp the cost of Wordle itself), but here, sure.

ChrisArchitect 5y ago

Ready for the NYT_First_Said to NYT_Wordle clue pipeline

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

cbdumas 5y ago

This makes perfect sense and fits in well with their games subscription offering [0]. I'll be sad to see Wordle go behind a paywall but this is great for the creator. [0] https://www.nytco.com/press/both-cooking-and-games-reach-1-million-subscriptions/ https://www.nytco.com/press/both-cooking-and-games-reach-1-m...

trollied 5y ago

It's insane that they purchased it - the game itself is a rip-off of a UK gameshow from the 1980s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(British_game_show) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingo_(British_game_show)

clarle 5y ago

I think the New York Times got the perfect price for it, given that half the comments in this thread are "wow, that's a lot cheaper that I expected", and that the other half are "wow, that's a ridiculous windfall for just a few days of work".

nsv 5y ago

When wordle first started to rise in popularity, I saw a lot of comments that the one-a-day format was too limiting, and people would get bored and forget about the site because one puzzle doesn't offer enough engagement. I think that actually it had the opposite effect, keeping people coming back every day. It just goes to show that what people say they want, and what actually works, can be very different.

zimpenfish 5y ago
> I think that actually it had the opposite effect That's my feeling too - it's quick and cheerful. You know you can fire it up and be done ~5 minutes later with a nice little thing to post onto $SOCIALOFCHOICE and no need to think about it again for 24 hours.
rtkwe 5y ago
I think the shared puzzle and mystery aspect is what made it take off. You could gloat or moan very easily and everyone who played knew exactly what you were trying to guess and could compare.
cookie_monsta 5y ago
That was my experience. Somebody posted a clone here very early on that let you play as many times as you liked. I think I did 3 or 4 in a row and never went back. I still wordle every day, though. Sometimes scarcity is nice.
- mromanuk 5y ago
  I feel the same about TV series, I tend to value more and be more mindful of content that is released weekly, than released at once for for binging. Later, makes me loathe it Paraphrasing you: Scarcity makes you value things more, sometimes in a good way.
  - cookie_monsta 5y ago
    The important thing is getting the dosage right. I feel like it's hard to get immersed in a show where I see one episode per week. I also find myself forgetting minor characters and suspect that I don't make as many subtle connections when I watch weekly. One wordle per day seems to be optimal, though - you get your fix but it maintains its freshness.

sjg007 5y ago

Ah so this is how they will get subscriptions.. dastardly plan!

Zren 5y ago

Link to the game: https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/ https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/ Pretty fun. If you read his homepage https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/ https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/ he mentions he created Reddit's "The Button" and "Place" April Fools games. Dude's pretty creative.

weeblewobble 5y ago
The Button was pretty cool. I really love the UX on Wordle. Can't really explain why but it's just so pleasant to use.
- Scott_Sanderson 5y ago
  I didn't understand what the button was and pushed it right away lol
- ryantgtg 5y ago
  The letter flipping reveal is a key component that adds to the joy of Wordle.
- hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
  If anything I think Wordle is such a great example of how a simple idea, but executed pretty perfectly, can get traction. Things like: 1. The letter flipping, as another commenter mentioned. 2. How the keyboard colors the keys after your guesses. 3. The social sharing, with the simple (text only!) sharing of your scores. 4. The "once-per-day" nature of it. 5. It's all basically in a single static JS file! I don't have to wait for anything to load, don't need to sign up or login, yada yada (of course, I pretty much expect the NYT to fuck that up, but oh well, that always happens over time). I could basically see a ton of different iterations of this that wouldn't have been any where nearly as successful.
  - bikitan 5y ago
    > of course, I pretty much expect the NYT to fuck that up, but oh well, that always happens over time They have a number of free games that don't require any kind of account or registration. I am optimistic that they won't introduce any unsavory elements to it and turn off the playerbase it's amassed. Take a look: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords

TT-392 5y ago

Well, I guess it is dead

anusood 5y ago

I love it - have cracked the code so I get the word within 3 attempts. All about the vowels.

daenz 5y ago

I foresee this triggering an influx of kitschy word games trying to attain similar exits.

tasha0663 5y ago
I present, Flappy Words!

julienb_sea 5y ago

I wonder what % of NYT app users do the daily crossword. I would imagine its a very significant percentage, which likely is why NYT is interested in acquiring and integrating a new word game into their app experience.

colinmhayes 5y ago
NYT crossword has a different subscription than NYT news. I suspect increasing the number of news subs who also have a crossword sub is a major part of this acquisition. They'll start showing "play wordle on our crossword app" ads on the main app.

cletus 5y ago

This reminds me of another fad (Draw Soemthing). Zynga bought OMGPOP for $200M [1] right at its peak of popularity, shutting it down a year later [2]. Remember another fad: HQ Trivia [3]? I honestly don't even know what Wordle is. No shade on anyone who enjoys it. I just don't think anyone will be talking about it in 6 months. [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/03/21/zynga-acquires-omgpop-maker-of-draw-something/?sh=569bb7a42821 https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/03/21/zynga-acq... [2]: https://techcrunch.com/2013/06/04/zynga-shuts-down-omgpop-one-year-after-acquiring-it-for-200m/ https://techcrunch.com/2013/06/04/zynga-shuts-down-omgpop-on... [3]: https://productmint.com/what-happened-to-hq-trivia/ https://productmint.com/what-happened-to-hq-trivia/

Buttons840 5y ago
Check out out. It's a very simple word game that requires no login. No ads. You're probably right about it being a temporary fad.

gpas 5y ago

I remember when almost everyone here was against his choice to not monetize from the first day. Instead he released a user friendly app, no ads, no trackers. Great success, massive user base, huge money. Well played.

redisman 5y ago
7 figures for a solo dev game of such small scope is amazing, people here have way too high expectations. Most indie games make $0-10000
- cableshaft 5y ago
  Raises hand solo game dev here that's never gotten above $10k revenue for a game I've released. 7 figures for something this tiny is amazing. Working on a game in my spare time that's still small but significantly more ambitious in features, with 3D graphics, animations, Twitch streamer features, cosmetic game unlocks, possibly online multiplayer support, etc, but starting to wonder if I shouldn't try just knocking out a few small puzzle game ideas I've been sitting on for forever and do my best to incorporate some of the natural viral mechanisms that were in Wordle (not really possible with those games to post different types of solutions and still not give it away though, that's a big part of Wordle's virality).

bitwize 5y ago

Well, I'm not as upset about this as I was about the Microsoft/Actiblizzard merger, but I just can't wait for those "You've used 3 of your 5 free wordles for the month" modal popups to show up!

daok 5y ago

Can someone explain me how come Wordle can be acquire since it is an implementation of another game called Lingo? Isn't there some copyright or other intellectual property belonging to someone else?

lapetitejort 5y ago
Rules cannot be copyrighted. I can make a Wordle clone right now and as long as I don't reuse assets/names there's nothing they can do about it. See also 2048, which is a clone of 1024, which is a clone of Threes.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- fouc 5y ago
  Yeah, the similarities with 2048 is uncanny. Too bad Gabriele Cirulli never got a similar buyout.
fouc 5y ago
I'm assuming the name "Wordle" itself is possibly trademarkable..

jacquesm 5y ago

For those of you thinking and commenting this was sold too cheap: that's a life changing amount of money right that, you won't be able to spend it if you play it smart. Keep in mind that wordle went from a cost to a net + for the dev in a very short time, and that there was no business model. Don't give up the day job, buy a chunk of real estate and 'level up' in one go based on a happy accident, this is found money. And if you think it is worth 10's of millions then you probably should have made a deal with the author yourself, easy money, right? Better a deal at a lower than optimal valuation than no deal at the best possible price. This thing may go down as fast as it went up, better to capitalize on it while it's hot.

klyrs 5y ago
It's enough to buy a small house!
- jacquesm 5y ago
  That's life changing to a very large chunk of the population who don't make SV IT person money.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - klyrs 5y ago
    Indeed, a solitary exclamation mark cannot convey my feelings here. For much of my life, I've watched housing grow faster than my income, and I had pretty much given up on the notion before I met my current partner... with two tech incomes, it's actually within our reach. As a kid (circa 1990), we'd play "what would you do with a million dollars" with all sorts of fantastical notions, and as the years have gone by, the answer settled on "a house" and has now reached "a small house in a crappy location." Perhaps "a down payment on a nice place." I'm both happy for the creator, and sad about the reality of realty.
    - jacquesm 5y ago

shawnk 5y ago

What if we Come to find out his COUSIN runs the games division in NYT. Hahahaha classic story.

DantesKite 5y ago

They're not just buying the game. It's trivial to make. They're buying the social network that comes with it.

hwers 5y ago

Glad the guy made bank from it. I'd literally had a few worried minutes about the injustice of making something so viral and it not e.g. translating to more security health and happiness for his family.

dmillar 5y ago

I suppose we/(I?) should get started on an independent version. There's no way the Times doesn't some how paywall or otherwise ruin this.

VeninVidiaVicii 5y ago

Weird. Did anyone else think NYT already owned Wordle?

Rebelgecko 5y ago

TIL that Wordle is actually named after its creator. Can't blame him for cashing out at the peak.

thepasswordis 5y ago

https://wordlegame.org/ https://wordlegame.org/ <-- exists I actually thought this was the "real" wordle for about a week.

zacharycohn 5y ago

Irrespective of the acquisition, I do not think people will be playing Wordle to the same extent in 6 months - certainly not in 12 months. This is a great exit for Josh to get out at/near the peak of popularity.

aroman 5y ago
Sure, but Wordle was not a startup. It wasn't seeking an "exit". It was a fun project made by a guy for his girlfriend who likes word games. He shared to their family, and it spread. Not everything needs to be or should be viewed from the lens of startup, even if this is YC's HN. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-game-creator.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-ga...
- zacharycohn 5y ago
  I didn't say anything about it being a startup. The fact that it wasn't a startup, and this guy turned a viral sensation into a lifechanging opportunity, is great.
  - aroman 5y ago
    Your comment referred to Wordle's "acquisition" and "exit", which is startup jargon. I agree it's great he's getting a financial windfall, I just meant that the absence of that outcome — no acquisition/exit, just a fun game — would have also been meaningful and valuable for the world. Linguistic relativity etc etc :)

hakanensari 5y ago

Everybody is now talking about NYT buying Wordle. Not that they would care about the cost as such, but they already seem to have recouped it, in my opinion.

jonahbenton 5y ago

Good for him, too bad for me, will not play it again.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

koolba 5y ago

The conspiracy theorist in me suggests this is a long winded way to prevent people from clearing their history to circumvent the free article limit, lest they lose their Wordle score. The technologist in me suggests he’s right.

crackercrews 5y ago
Same thought here. Now we just need a browser extension that can maintain your Wordle history after you clear cookies and history.
ReaLNero 5y ago
A well-timed X (stop page load) click can let you read as many NYT articles as you want.

rexreed 5y ago

How does the New York Times have all this capital to spend / invest / burn, while other media companies (especially journalism) are struggling so much just to keep their lights on?

vmception 5y ago
Being publicly traded with a sticky subscription model helps. NY Times is also part of AMEX's digital entertainment credit, so subscribers print revenue that AMEX reimburses them behind the scenes. NY Times gets to print high revenue numbers anyway, and the public markets trade that a multiple. So NY Times has access to capital to occasionally make a 7 figure purchase. Media properties struggle to find something for a growth strategy but they have access to capital, they just don't expect to continue to have access to capital which makes them have to cut things earlier, expecting gloom and doom.
tptacek 5y ago
Because local media is ad-dependent and the NYT makes most of its money on paid subscriptions. Media companies have been trying to pivot to paid subscriptions, but the NYT has for over a decade been premised on paid subscriptions online, during a time period where competing media companies hoped to stay free to subscribers based on ad revenue; they've managed to build a business that is essential enough that 8 million people subscribe to it, including during a long stretch of time where the modal media business strategy was "monetize eyeballs".
colinmhayes 5y ago
NYT did very well under Trump. Basically local news is worthless since no one pays for it since it's expected to be free and seen as "low brow". People don't mind paying to keep democracy strong which is what NYT paints themselves as doing.
United857 5y ago
IMO, New York is probably the first city most people associate America with, so they've been able to build a global media brand vs your local small town newspaper.

delgaudm 5y ago

Soon: SHOW HN: I sold my girlfriends birthday present to NYT for seven figures.

cwkoss 5y ago
I wonder if girlfriend is going to be given a chunk of those 7 figures.

jrochkind1 5y ago

«“I am a bit suspicious of mobile apps that demand your attention and send you push notifications to get more of your attention,” Wardle told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 [On Jan 5]. “There are also no ads. I’m not doing anything with your data, and that is also quite deliberate as well.” Wardle, explaining the reasons behind his decision not to monetize Wordle, asked, “Why can’t something just be fun on the internet?” “I’m fortunate enough. I’m in a position where I’m comfortable. I don’t have to charge people money for this. I don’t begrudge people if they’re making things and charging money for them online. That’s fine. But with Wordle, that was never the goal,” Wardle said. “And I would, ideally, like to keep it that way.”» https://www.marketplace.org/2022/01/27/wordle-the-global-phenomenon-thats-not-pulling-in-any-revenue/ https://www.marketplace.org/2022/01/27/wordle-the-global-phe...

vmception 5y ago
Wardle had a number

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

crackercrews 5y ago

I imagine they'll probably let people play for free but try to monetize by holding back your score history if you're not logged in. Any other ideas on how they might feature gate this?

aiisahik 5y ago

Think of the payoff for the engineer per hour of work. Truly insane and impressive. Kudos!

i13e 5y ago

As a bit of a counterpoint to the downsides of NYT's eventual soft-paywall, I think that this fits their arsenal of games rather nicely. I just spent 30 minutes playing around with their catalog of free daily challenges and Wordle fits in very well objectively and aesthetically. I don't think it would have been feasible to expect the dev to pay for server costs of millions of visits per day for what was meant to be a project for his family. While NYT is Bizarro King Midas when it comes to acquistions, this is probably the best case outcome long-term. Link to try them yourself: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords

epa 5y ago

Might be a great buy for NYT, their crossword was historically a large driver of their newspaper sales.

hooande 5y ago

for what it's worth, I don't think the NYT will "ruin" Worlde. If they roll it into the NYT website there will already be ads and subscription solicitations all around it as part of the normal page UI. The game itself can still be free and relatively uncluttered. I doubt the overall experience will change much and they'll probably make their "low seven figures" back in a relatively short time. I'm over Worlde, personally. I started when it first showed up on hn a few weeks ago and stopped recently. It was fun, it was a little daily thing. but it's an easy game and I've moved on

alexb_ 5y ago

Truly, nothing in the world of tech is sacred.

intrasight 5y ago

"Low XXXXX figures"

Lamad123 5y ago

when you google Wordle, google header is animated in Wordle style.. I don't even know what this wordle is.

cwkoss 5y ago

The webdesign philosophy of wordle is practically the opposite of NYT's. Wordle is free, accountless, low friction. NYT will turn this into a subscription funnel, and it will lose all of its charm. I look forward to continue playing until it gets moved to NYT, and then dropping off as soon as they put up a signin gate.

Spivak 5y ago
It’s not so dire because you can continue to play “classic” Wordle forever — or well 2028 at least. It’s a static, front-end only app with a predetermined word list iterating in order.
- chrisshroba 5y ago
  I'd imagine NYT could technically copyright strike anyone that hosts it, given that they've now bought the copyright to that particular arrangement of words. I wonder if it will come to that. This has an "Ethereum Classic" feel to it...
- crackercrews 5y ago
  Is this confirmed? I'd would think that NYT would require him to take it down as part of the purchase.
  - bostonsre 5y ago
    If its static, you can just download it to your laptop and there isn't anything NYT could do to prevent you from playing it locally.
    - taurusnoises 5y ago
      Wait. You can download this game?? And, would it still function as once a day?
      - jbc1 5y ago

dom96 5y ago

I don't know what it is but the hype around Wordle has actually made me not want to give it a try. Is there a word to describe someone that gets discouraged from trying things that feel "mainstream"?

kayxspre 5y ago
The burst of its popularity is one of the reasons I choose not to try it. Right now, I would see friends posting their guesses every day, and it's getting annoying. Since it was just a text and emoji, it acted like a normal status update and I can't just "hide all from this source" (as it's not an app/page) without hiding all updates of my friends that played it.
paulcole 5y ago
“wet blanket” works pretty well in my experience.

antisthenes 5y ago

How is different from 10,000 other browser-based ad-supported games? Wordle seems pretty primitive by comparison to some of those, and the only competitive advantage it has, is that you can share your attempts at guessing with friends. Also, they only have 2315 possible words as answers, so this is going to get really stale in a few months to a year. Seems not worth paying 7 figures for, but what do I know?

kzrdude 5y ago
The setup is successful (as evident), probably because of the fixed time schedule and only one shared global word per day. It becomes a common thing people can talk about. We need more common reference points like that!

jmpeax 5y ago

Beautiful lesson in just building something cool that people will love, and completely forget about monetization. If it explodes, the money will come.

United857 5y ago

The source code and word lists of Wordle is easily accessible, and runs completely client side -- anyone can clone and host their own instance if they want. https://reichel.dev/blog/reverse-engineering-wordle.html#looking-at-the-source https://reichel.dev/blog/reverse-engineering-wordle.html#loo...

metaldood 5y ago
Spolier alert. This page discloses the list of words

henvic 5y ago

Wordle tomorrow: https://twitter.com/henriquev/status/1488304923607552009 https://twitter.com/henriquev/status/1488304923607552009 lol

evouga 5y ago

I just stopped playing Wordle this week since I’ve lost interest (even on Hard Mode). Buying a fad at peak popularity is a strange business decision.

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agar 5y ago

How I hope the New York Times improves Wordle: > The Wordle URL moves to https://newyorktimes.com/wordle https://newyorktimes.com/wordle. That is all. How I hope the New York Times monetizes Wordle: > The Wordle URL moves to https://newyorktimes.com/wordle https://newyorktimes.com/wordle, and they add a small NY Times logo to the Share page. Clicking it takes you to the newspaper's front page. That is all.

grensley 5y ago

My mom loves Scrabble and Boggle and it's been really great sharing Wordle results with her everyday. Felt like we hadn't had a real societal phenomenon since Tiger King. It might just be a flash in the pan and gone in a couple months, but it's been the most wholesome one since Pokemon Go.

throwaway22032 5y ago

Is the game idea even ownable? I didn't think that board game rulesets were copyrightable, only the graphics. Can I just host a wordle clone and bot add the NYT's latest word every day at midnight from Twitter? Can you copyright "the english dictionary word that was used on Wordle NYT today"? I feel like the owner basically is laughing to the bank on this, they've bought.. a domain? The brand "wordle"? Even that?

dehrmann 5y ago
Sure, you can clone it, but you'd be competing with the well-known brand that's free in somewhere between two weeks and two months. NYT bought a user base that might be into crosswords and spelling bee.

jedberg 5y ago

I just realized the guy who made this is the guy who worked at Reddit and made “the button” and other stuff. So happy for him!

desireco42 5y ago

I think this is excellent purchase by NY Times and really good outcome for dev, so for both I congratulate and wish them the best. Wordle will find a good home in NYT and dev gets to enjoy money as well as fame.

axiosgunnar 5y ago

So will this post [1] replace the infamous HN Dropbox comment [2]? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29916899 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29916899 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

femto113 5y ago

Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it? "On March 21, 2012, Draw Something was bought by the gaming company Zynga for $180 million. The game's popularity peaked on the day of the sale, and the number of daily active users tumbled from 15 million to 10 million by early May." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draw_Something https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draw_Something

polished85 5y ago

Was there a way for NYT to make an exact copy of this game and just leverage their existing users and traffic to build a player base?

jbmny 5y ago

I don't know the ultimate fate of Wordle, but I'm comforted by the thought of thousands of programmers all over the world creating and hosting their own little versions and sharing them with friends and family. It's so simple that it practically begs to be implemented in whichever language you happen to be dabbling in at the moment.

MR4D 5y ago

Man, what is this - International Buy A Game Company Month? Smart purchase by NYT.

candyman 5y ago

It's funny but I've always payed for the NYT crossword subscription even though I tend to only pay for the NYT on the "trial" rate which I think is like $1 a week. I enjoy doing the crossword that much. I like doing the wordle too and would miss it. My day is mostly work so I really enjoy a game that challenges me and helps me get my brain going but also ends so there is no more playing. Crosswords and wordle are great in that regard. Could the NYT be on to something in gaming? I don't know that area but would be keen to know what gaming professionals think.

jbegley 5y ago

Here’s a free version in case the original gets paywalled: https://wordle.nyc https://wordle.nyc

allturtles 5y ago

What is the NYT buying here? If they paywall it or put ads on it, anyone can easily make a Wordle clone as long as they give it a different name and don't copy the original code.

lostgame 5y ago

Heck, it would be cute to see Wordle in the paper!

jlelse 5y ago

I hope this ends the hype. I'm a bit annoyed seeing Wordle guesses everywhere online.

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anshumankmr 5y ago

How lonng before the game is added to their subscription model (along with the Crossword)?

pontifier 5y ago

You've reached your limit of free... Awesome :(

morpheuskafka 5y ago

I don't understand how this game can be commercialized. Crosswords actually have to be written and the quality of the game relates to how much effort goes into making it. Anyone with a dictionary file can host a World clone. Not sayings its a bad game--its a great idea--just don't see what the value is in buying it. I'm not even sure what exactly they bought, it doesn't really have any monetization/userbase/IP.

hpaavola 5y ago
Comics of the new era. Just a thing which keeps some group of users coming to your site every day. Keeps existing readers happy as they can complete their wordle between reading news. New users trickle in slowly as they complete their wordle in NYT.com so easy to click to new section and get hooked. Just adding nyt.com link to the Share snippet will bring in some number of possible new readers.
a1371 5y ago
The obvious commercialization route I can think of is the following: every time you get a yellow letter you make an NFT; every time you get a green letter you make an NFT. Then you can provide zero knowledge proof to other people that you have all those NFTs, and compound interest over time. For the NYT it's all about supporting artistic expression you see /s

supernova87a 5y ago

I don't quite understand why the NYT didn't just create its own version of the game? Are the users so valuable? Is the game copyrighted? Is that a thing?

intrepidsoldier 5y ago

Everyone posting #Wordle scores this week will receive 10 instead of 5 free NYT articles for the next three months. Paid NYT subscription will entitle you to a daily email (at midnight your time) with daily Wordle answer and a recommended random sequence to post on social.

kiru_io 5y ago

I made clone for math, the UX is inspired by Wordle. Can NYT threat any legal action against the (free or paid) clones?

matsemann 5y ago
No, they don't own the concept. They own their specific implementation, and the name Wordle. (So you can't name it "MathWordle" for instance) Or, they could always threat. But only way they'd win is if it's a straight clone (graphics and all), and/or uses the Wordle name to piggyback on that. Just see how many match-three games there are. The concept anyone can use, don't name your game candy crush and you're fine.

shetill 5y ago

Guy gets a million from some hobby game never has to work again, I'm here grinding the 9-5 like an absolute idiot

animal531 5y ago

But the problem for me is that it seems he didn't invent it. Five years ago this guy built this exact game, also called Wordle: https://twitter.com/StevenCravotta/status/1481318799160733700/ https://twitter.com/StevenCravotta/status/148131879916073370... He reached out to Josh Wardle to donate the profit he was suddenly making to charity etc. It took some time but eventually Josh responded. Now that Josh has sold his copycat game I wonder if he's going to share the income?

davidweatherall 5y ago
Steven's app in that tweet is completely different [0], the reason he reached out to Josh wasn't because it was the same app, it was because he was unintentionally getting the traffic that should've been going to Josh just due to a name clash and didn't want to profit off of accidentally "deceiving" users. [0] - https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/wordle/id1095569891 https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/wordle/id1095569891
d23 5y ago
Did you read your link? Your summary is incomprehensibly misleading.

needle0 5y ago

Considering Zynga paid over $50 million to buy Words With Friends [1] back in 2011, the price seems awfully low. Then again, who knows, maybe the creator is simply indifferent to worldly gain, considering he didn't even bother to include a URL in the social share string simply because it looked "trashy." [2] [1]: https://venturebeat.com/2011/07/05/zynga-paid-53-3m-to-buy-words-with-friends-mobile-game-maker-newtoy/ https://venturebeat.com/2011/07/05/zynga-paid-53-3m-to-buy-w... [2]: https://www.famitsu.com/news/202201/07247076.html https://www.famitsu.com/news/202201/07247076.html

danparsonson 5y ago

Pro tip: the entire game is self-contained within the page that you download, so you can take an offline copy - you know, in case it happens to change for the worst in future...

m4tthumphrey 5y ago

Just heard of Wordle due to this thread. I am not sure if it exists outside of the UK (it must do!) but the mechanics of this game are pretty much the same as the Mastermind board game[0]. Instead of coloured pegs, its 5 letter words. Very cool. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game)

llimos 5y ago
With the quite significant difference that the words have to be real words

Nowlook 5y ago

Adversarial Wordle is great. More difficult than Wordle but same old game. Evil Wordle is another one worth looking at.

etempleton 5y ago

It feels like an insane amount of money for something that I cannot imagine anyone talking about in a few weeks. My understanding is also that this is not a particularly new game, that there are other games just like it that have come and gone. If that is the case than all NYT is really buying is the name, which, admittedly, is pretty good.

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