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New York Times buys Wordle: will it remain free?

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WORDLE FEATURE

The New York Times has just purchased viral game sensation Wordle for "a low seven figures", which has sent a few ripples of anxiety through fans across the world.

The simple daily game - to guess a five-letter word in only six tries - has become a much-loved daily ritual uniting millions of us.

If you've played, you'll know how attached people are to solving it and sharing the results on social media or more privately with a friend or workmate.

The big question is: Will it remain free?

And also: Will it keep its simple, uncluttered interface without ads?

But most importantly: Will our stats and streaks stay with us so we can brag about them to the world?

So many questions, but so far the answers are all sounding good from the new owner:


Let's hope that's all true, because there's a lot of this feeling going around right now, and who can blame us really.

The game was created by software engineer Josh Wardle, who made it just for his partner, but then it quickly grew since last October to have millions of players worldwide. That viral success, though, is why it's being sold and Wardle says he's thrilled about it going to the New York Times.

In posting to Twitter about the sale, Wardle wrote that "it has been incredible to watch the game bring so much joy to so many" but also continued by saying "I'd be lying if I said this hasn't been overwhelming. After all, I am just one person, and it is important to me that, as Wordle grows, it continues to provide a great experience to everyone."

But behind the simple game and all the green and yellow grids being shared to social is a rollercoaster of emotions. There's the pure joy of solving it or the thrill of solving it in two or three guesses (or even one!) through to the pain of failure and the frustration of only having one letter to guess on the last go and still not getting it right. And the discovery that it was using American spellings? Us Aussies collectively had a meltdown!

But the cool thing is, there's always someone to celebrate and commiserate with. We really are all in this together.

And finally, can you believe there are people who don't understand what the fuss is all about?!

(We can't be friends, just saying...)