How Wordle Transformed Casual Gaming into a Cultural Phenomenon

Regarded as one of the most intriguing new success stories in the realm of video gaming features Wordle, a daily word-guessing game created by software developer Josh Wardle for him and his partner to enjoy. It boasts a straightforward interface, is easy to understand, contains no advertisements, and is entirely free to play. Guess a 5-letter word within six attempts, then return the next day for another challenge. Thus, when it premiered in October 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, it quickly gained popularity.

Just a few months later, The New York Times acquired it for an amount “in the low seven figures.” A couple of years afterward, it remains a major sensation, having been played over 4.8 billion times in 2023 alone. Its popularity surged to the extent that when the technology union within the organization went on strike in November 2024, employees created variations of its games, including Wordle, that users could engage with instead of crossing the picket line.

Wordle‘s immense popularity marks just one pivotal moment in the lineage of newspaper games—typically word or number puzzles, crosswords, Sudoku, and other games played once daily. Such games have been enjoyed for over a century, with nearly every major subscription publication having its own offering. 

Yet, there was something about Wordle that attracted the attention of publications and platforms alike. LinkedIn introduced three “thinking-based games” in May 2024, while Vulture launched Cinematrix, a grid-based movie trivia guessing game, in February. Subscription-based gaming platform Puzzmo was unveiled in late 2023, featuring classic options like crosswords along with innovative offerings such as Pile-Up Poker, a strangely satisfying and unique blend of poker and Sudoku. It was acquired by Hearst Newspapers a few months later, and can now be played across several platforms like the San Francisco Chronicle.

Wardle states that Wordle’s triumph is linked to its straightforwardness. “I believe people sort of enjoy that there’s this thing online that’s just fun,” he shared with The New York Times. “It’s something that invites you to spend three minutes a day… Like, it doesn’t demand more of your time than that.”

Experts consulted for this article concur to some degree. Wordle is a simple yet captivating game that appeals to nearly everyone. However, it also thrived due to its remarkable timing, being released during a pandemic when people were craving connection in a world where building relationships felt daunting, and it highlighted what still needed to be accomplished to elevate daily games. The moment was ripe for change. 

Is The New York Times a gaming company?

The frontrunner in the newspaper gaming domain is undoubtedly The New York Times. Its crossword is among the most famous, and puzzle editor Will Shortz has become as recognizable as a household name among puzzle enthusiasts. It was already a significant feature before the publication acquired Wordle, and it has grown even more vital in the era of digital subscriptions. 

As traditional publications grapple with subscriber numbers and profitability, The New York Times has increased its subscriber base nearly every year since 2014. This growth is partly attributed to a package that costs $25 monthly and includes subscriptions for both its games app and the newspaper itself. Its investment into Wordle is just one piece of its expansion strategy. As of November 2023, it employed roughly 100 team members—up from about a dozen over the past decade—and it has since recruited more in community and creation. “The running joke repeated internally is that The New York Times is now a gaming company that also happens to provide news,” one anonymous employee remarked to Vanity Fair.

You could easily mistake The New York Times for a gaming corporation. According to Semafor, the NYT Games app was downloaded over 10 million times in 2023. Nevertheless, despite this achievement and growth, Times executive editor Joseph Kahn insists that they’re not seeking to establish a gaming studio, explaining to Vanity Fair that the organization is not “Activision, and I don’t think we’re aiming to become that.” “These are brainteaser games for intelligent individuals who crave a challenge in the midst of

the day. Thus, I perceive them as highly complementary, rather than substitutive, offerings for a news organization.”

The New York Times is fundamentally a prominent media organization, but since acquiring Wordle, it has introduced Connections, a game that challenges players to identify four groups of words from a pool of 16 distinct options each day. According to Semafor, this game has seen approximately 2.3 billion plays. Additionally, it has rolled out Strands, a game inspired by word searches, and is in the testing phase for Zorse, a word-guessing game.

“It’s clear that Wordle was a significant turning point for us,” remarked chief product officer Alex Hardiman in an interview with Vanity Fair. However, “it’s not just about Wordle. It’s about Wordle drawing more attention to other games, allowing us to invest more in gaming.”

The pandemic’s personal impact on daily games

Wordle’s immense popularity isn’t the sole reason for the surge in daily games. It was also fueled, in part, by the pandemic, during which individuals confined at home with little to do sought some semblance of routine to occupy their time. Video game popularity and sales soared during the pandemic, with even the World Health Organization advocating for playing video games during lockdown. Wordle took advantage of this by offering a simple daily challenge. You solve one puzzle each day, and you’re locked out until the next day.

Stella Zawistowski, a puzzle creator for Vulture, The New Yorker, and other outlets, notes that the pandemic “accelerated” the realm of daily games because people were searching for activities that “make you feel a bit smarter.” Wordle also boasted a secret advantage: a feature that automatically generated a color-coded grid of your results that you could share on Twitter/X or other social networks.

“I don’t think [[Wordle] would have been successful if you could just play as many times as you wanted each day,” Zawistowski stated. “I don’t believe it would have been nearly as popular if people couldn’t share their scores on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, because that’s what gets everyone talking about it.”

This community engagement is one of gaming’s most appealing attributes, and this is especially true for daily games. The New York Times has gradually been fostering community by adding statistics to its games and enabling users to join forums (though these mostly serve as links to discussion sections), yet much of its success occurs despite a lack of features. So many people engage with The New York Times games, leading to numerous opportunities for virality. For instance, Connections has become a viral sensation in certain circles due to the chaotic nature of some of the answers (a long-running comedic narrative about how users view editor Wyna Liu as their nemesis has inspired many TikToks and memes). This is why Puzzmo co-founder Zach Gage believes there isn’t much needed to provide a social space for various online gamers.

“Their platform is lackluster,” Gage stated. “It’s lackluster in the sense that it’s virtually non-existent. Their platform consists of a website with numerous links to games, and then you navigate to play these games, but the games don’t genuinely interact with the site where you started.”

Gage noted that during the pandemic, he observed his wife playing Words with Friends, a mobile, multiplayer version of Scrabble, with family through various group chats. I see a similar pattern among those who play Wordle. Even in 2024, I know people in community chats specifically dedicated to sharing Wordle results.

“If this were any other game that gained such acclaim, there would be a social space associated with it that everyone would be able to enjoy… Why is there never a social space for gamers like that?” Gage questioned.

Gage, recognized for daily games like Really Bad Chess and SpellTower, initiated Puzzmo in 2023 with engineer Orta Therox not solely as a website to manage his games, but to create…a void that the New York Times created in the aspect of community engagement. There are leaderboards, social elements like friend requests, direct access to a Discord channel where players and creators can gather, along with daily announcements discussing how well individuals performed on puzzles. 

Even LinkedIn acknowledged the potential of games to bring people together as its reason for incorporating daily games into its platform. You can participate in one of the three or four games available at the time of this writing—Pinpoint, Queens, or Crossclimb—and then see which of your connections have played. You can also then check the leaderboards or quickly jump into the community post to interact with others. While it’s basic, it serves as a small nudge to engage socially through its games. “You share your knowledge and receive insights in return, you share your journeys and learn about the paths taken by others. And with games, you complete a puzzle and then discuss it with colleagues, friends, and distant acquaintances,” stated the editor in chief and VP at LinkedIn in the games announcement.

The Evolution of an Outdated Structure

It is logical that the New York Times would dominate the daily gaming sector due to its long history and brand recognition—it launched in 1942, allowing plenty of time to establish a strong reputation. However, it has been making changes to stay relevant for 2024. It has lagged in community building, but it has been working on improving its image of being stuffy, old-fashioned, intellectual, and almost entirely excluded from many audiences. The best way to excel at a New York Times crossword isn’t merely by knowing random trivia, but rather by practicing repeatedly until you start recognizing patterns and the answers to common clues.

There are more effective methods to make this happen, particularly for those who seek them. A priority for Puzzmo was to provide a range of engaging experiences all within one application. If you wish to tackle a crossword without any hints, you certainly can. If you prefer to dive into additional side quests in Pile-Up Poker and engage further with a game’s mechanics, you can do that, too.

“One aspect I’ve observed is that the New York Times tends to appeal either to highly advanced players or beginners,” Gage mentioned. “Their crossword is not very welcoming for individuals who have never attempted one, and their game Tiles is not particularly engaging for those who are deeply into games and are seeking a profound experience… In Puzzmo, our focus is on creating games that are suitable for everyone.”

Puzzle creator Brooke Husic heads the Puzzmo crossword, serving as an excellent illustration of this balancing act. Puzzmo crosswords vary in difficulty, but this is not determined by the obscurity of the clues. The crossword allows users to use a few hints before revealing the solution, and 

“We want individuals who are like, we have several of the top speed solvers in the world completing [the crossword] every day. I truly want them to be part of it. I genuinely want them to be there,” Husic expressed. “However, at the same time, I want someone who has never solved a crossword before to come to post about it any day and share that it’s their first crossword, and they had a great experience.”

The New York Times, for what it’s worth, has been making efforts to broaden the accessibility of its puzzles, particularly its crossword. Everdeen Mason became the newspaper’s inaugural editorial director of games in 2021, and she informed Vanity Fair that while the Times needed to enhance its brand image, it also aims to be more welcoming to newer players. “If we’re asking people to pay for a product that’s essentially something they can’t access, then that isn’t very fair,” she remarked.

Beyond the sheer variety of themes in the market that allows players to choose which crosswords or games they might enjoy, a more diverse group of creators and editors have also contributed to several of the most well-known puzzle sections. The New York Times is no longer solely run by white men; Mason is a Black woman who dyes her hair, wears anime shirts during interviews, and recently sought to engage the team and “encourage people out of their comfort zones” with a Black History Month theme and more freelance constructors from various backgrounds. 

Zawistowski has previously written about the predominance of male constructors in the crossword realm and began her career challenging that dominance. “The partner I was collaborating with was an older, retired white man, and he would incorporate Boomer references in his puzzles, and then I would have to clue them. It’s simply not who I am, whereas now I can include elements I love, and the puzzle feels more like me,” Zawistowski stated. Yet now, she has transitioned from freelancing in marketing to crafting puzzles full-time, and she creates them on her own terms.

Making puzzles feel more personal has proven successful for Puzzmo. Husic ensures that crossword players have the opportunity to learn about the creator and the process behind creating that particular puzzle through notes that appear after completion. 

“What was important to me was to make it very clear that individuals made these, and they cared deeply about every choice,” Husic stated. This is a chance to connect with the player beyond simply offering a daily puzzle. “I’ve always wanted to highlight individual voices. Yes, there are many who do not realize that people create crosswords. Many think that software generates them, or they believe that Will Shortz writes every New York Times crossword.”

How Long Will This Boost Last?

Just as in many trends and industries, there will be players who become weary and lose interest.