Games | The New York Times buys the word game Wordle, which has become a hit

The New York Times publisher The New York Times Company buys hit hit Wordle online game.

The deal was announced late Monday Finnish time. The New York Times Company acquired the game from its creator, a software developer From Josh Wardle. The purchase price is a “low seven-figure sum,” The New York Times reported. That means at least a million dollars, or about 900,000 euros.

According to The New York Times, the game will remain free for now.

However, the magazine says the deal shows the growing importance of games in The New York Times Company’s strategy to increase the number of digital subscriptions to ten million by 2025. In other words, the game may at some point move into The New York Times ’paid games, which include the hugely popular online crossword puzzle.

Wordlen the name is a pun on the last name of game developer Wardle. He told The New York Times earlier in January that he had planned the game for his partner who loves word games. The game became obsessed with relatives in group chat, and fueled by this success, Wardle decided to release the game to the world in October.

The game took off when Wardle realized the possibility of sharing the game’s result in December. He learned this from a New Zealand Twitter user who presented his results to mothers.

Wordle had two million daily players in mid-January. The number is likely to increase significantly in a couple of weeks.