How Many Games Does the New York Times Own After Its Huge Wordle Deal?

2022 has seen a slew of acquisitions already. Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, and recently Sony announced their acquisition of Bungie. And now, the American newspaper New York Times has thrown their hat into the ring. It put out the word on January 31 that Wordle, the trending online game, was theirs.

Although, it wouldn’t be their only online offering, as New York Times’ games division has a repertoire of online games that they offer as part of their subscription service.

Wordle joins the New York Times Games

Wordle is the creation of software engineer Josh Wardle. He invented the game in 2021, it features a daily word challenge and is completely free to play with no ads or forms of monetization. As per NYT’s statement on their website, they acquired Wordle for an “undisclosed price in the low seven-figures.”

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Its creator Josh Wardle shared his thoughts on Twitter about the deal, saying:

“…I’m incredibly pleased to announce that I’ve reached an agreement with The New York Times for them to take over running Wordle going forward. If you’ve followed along with the story of Wordle, you’ll know that NYT games play a big part in its origins and so this step feels very natural to me.”

Additionally, Josh assured players that the game would remain free to play going forward and that he’s even working with The New York Times to preserve players’ wins and streaks in the game statistics.

On the whole, The New York Times now owns a total of 7 gaming titles. Their very first physical game launched back in 1942, in the form of the daily crossword puzzle. Since then, the publication has gone digital and put out many more games. As per their own website, from 2014 onwards they’ve released Mini Crossword, followed by Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles, and Vertex.

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These games have accrued over 500 million plays, as reported by gamesindustry.biz. One can gain access to these games with a subscription to The New York Times. Non-paying users also have access to some of these titles, like the Mini Crossword puzzle, and limited access to Vertex, Tiles, and Spelling Bee.

However, paid subscribers can gain access to all The New York Times Word Games and Logic puzzles, as well as a subscriber-only bonus puzzle each month.

Users on both Android and iOS can enjoy these games with the Crossword App.

Additionally, users with home delivery subscriptions of The New York Times are subscribed to New York Times Games pre-included, as per The New York Times Games Subscription FAQ.