There has always been an interest in word games.
Mankind has always been adept at solving riddles. While recreational puzzles entered our lives in the 20th century, the free entertainment Wordle, which has taken the world by storm in the last few months, has been acquired by the world giant New York Times.
But will it be paid now? Why is it so popular?
If something is successful on the internet, it doesn’t take long for it to be bought by bigger fish. Facebook has WhatsApp and Instagram to its name. Twitter has been chasing a new publisher wherever it can find one.
There is a game that has taken the internet by storm in recent months. It’s called Wordle. If you haven’t come across this game, let’s first explain what it is. The rules are simple, you have six chances to guess what a five-letter word is.
If you put the right letter in the right spot, the box turns green. If you put the right letter in the wrong spot, the box turns yellow and the wrong letter remains gray.
There are many reasons why the game is successful. It is an intellectual exercise and it makes you feel fresh. It is difficult but not too difficult, and the answer is not always the most obvious one.
“I feel smart playing this game,” says Josh Wardle
The British programmer who invented it. Social media tools make it easy to share the results. So people can compete with their friends.
PEOPLE ARE CURIOUS ABOUT EACH OTHER’S SCORES
Some people are avoiding seeing their elderly families because of the pandemic, but they say that by sharing Wordle results with each other, they relieve their feelings of loneliness.
Psychologist Lee Chambers attributes the game’s popularity to both competition and people’s curiosity about how hard others are struggling. Everything is commercialized on the internet these days. If you don’t subscribe to a platform, you see ad after ad after ad. Wordle doesn’t have that either (for now).
Almost a month after the game became popular around the world, the laws of the internet kicked in and the big fish swallowed the small fish. The New York Times, which has become more of a digital platform than a newspaper in recent years, bought the game for an undisclosed but known seven-digit sum.
The New York Times sells all its digital platforms on a subscription system. Very soon Wordle may also be paid. Although the New York Times says in a statement that the game will not be paid and that the gameplay will not be touched, it is not known how long it can keep this promise.
According to its latest balance sheet, the Times has a total of 8.4 million subscribers, 7.6 million of whom are subscribers to its digital services.
THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN INTEREST IN WORD GAMES
According to the New York Times acquisition announcement, Wordle went from 90 users on November 1 to 300,000 by mid-January.
Millions are now playing the game daily. It is also true that word-based games have a global audience.
For years, newspapers used crossword puzzles as a method to increase their sales. How Sudoku exploded for a while is still fresh in the memory.
Especially after 1929, when the United States was going through a deep economic crisis, newspapers began to distribute a significant number of puzzle supplements to distract people.
CREATED FOR HIMSELF AND HIS LOVER
Wordle founder Josh Wardle has always wanted the game to remain free. During quarantine, Wardle never imagined that the game he created for himself and his girlfriend would become a worldwide success.
In recent years, the New York Times has acquired consumer advice site Wirecutter, as well as The Athletic, a well-known sports publishing platform.