Everyone’s Favorite Word Game Has a New ◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️

📱 The New York Times purchased Wordle for an undisclosed amount “in the low seven figures” from creator Josh Wardle, the news org announced yesterday.

• Wardle, a software engineer living in Brooklyn, first published the hit word game on a no-frills, ad-free website in October.
• By November 1, Wordle had 90 active users – a number that soon grew to 300,000 by mid-January. Today, millions of people are playing the puzzle each day, according to the Times.
• The news org said no changes would be made to Wordle gameplay – in which players have six guesses to find a secret five-letter word – but didn’t disclose whether it plans to make money by selling ads within the game.
• The Times charges $5 a month for access to its games, including its flagship crossword puzzle, Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles, and Vertex. The company said it reached 1 million game subscriptions last month and that its games were played over 500 million times in total last year.

+Zoom out: Earlier this month, the Times agreed to acquire sports-media company The Athletic for $550 million.

+Brain game: The psychology behind what makes Wordle so addicting.