According to The Times report it acquired the game from its creator, Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, for a price “in the low seven figures”.
The article says that “the purchase reflects the growing importance of games, like crosswords and Spelling Bee, in the company’s quest to increase digital subscriptions to 10 million by 2025”.
“The Times remains focused on becoming the essential subscription for every English-speaking person seeking to understand and engage with the world,” a company statement says.
New York Times Games are a key part of that strategy. In December, The Times reported that its Games and Cooking app each had more than one million subscribers.
The company says the game would initially remain free to new and existing players.
Wordle has taken the world by storm, going from 90 users when it first appeared in October 2021 to 300,000 users mid-January 2022 to millions currently states The Times.
