Wordle buyout by New York Times draws backlash from fans

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The New York Times’s acquisition of Wordle has created uproar on social media, with fans expressing fears that the popular online word game, which is currently free to play, might be put behind a paywall.

Announcing on Monday that it had bought Wordle for an undisclosed price in the low seven figures, the Times said the game would “initially” remain free for existing and new players.

That wording led some social media users to suggest the media company would soon allow only subscribers access.

“I have never seen Twitter as immediately mad as it is about the NYT Wordle buyout,” one user tweeted. “The NYT took one nice and simple thing that a lot of people really liked, a dumb bit of fun in our exhaustingly dark times, and implied that they’ll stick it behind a paywall.”

After creating Wordle to play with his girlfriend Palak Shah, software engineer Josh Wardle released it to the public in October. Within months it became a global phenomenon, with celebrities such as Trevor Noah joining the bandwagon.

The once-a-day online game gives a player six chances to figure out a five-letter word, using the least number of guesses.

“I would be lying if I said this hasn’t been a little overwhelming,”

As the Times also seeks to grow paid readers outside its core news content, games and puzzles have become a key part of a strategy to keep its audience engaged on its apps and websites.

Its Games unit, which has more than one million subscriptions, started with the Daily Crossword, and later launched games such as Spelling Bee, Tiles, Letter Boxed and Vertex.