The purchase by The New York Times of the video game Wordle last February has turned out to be a successful strategy to increase the readership of the New York newspaper. This is stated by the CEO of the newspaper, Meredith Kopit Levien, announcing that have gained tens of thousands of new users as a result of the acquisition of Wordle.
The Wordle is the most popular of the several games offered by the online version of The New York Times
This growth, which Kopit Levien herself describes as “unprecedented”, has also meant that these new users who came to The New York Times through Wordle stayed on the platform to enjoy other games included on the newspaper’s website. The consequence is that in terms of economic figures, the past quarter has been the best that the publishing company of the Times has ever had.
In addition to the aforementioned Wordle and two different daily crosswords, some of the games that are included in the online page are Spelling Bee, Sudoku, Vertex, Letter Boxed and Tiles. All of them are included in the Times subscription, although there is also a mode in which subscription is allowed only to these games for 5 dollars per month.
Due to the tremendous success of Wordle from the Times they haven’t ruled out turning it into a subscriber-only gamebut due to its high popularity it may make more sense to continue offering it as before, outside of your paywall, as a potential lure for future new subscribers.
The Times has not provided details of how many of the new subscribers are Wordle players, but the total number of new subscribers only to the digital platform during the past quarter has been reported: 387,000.
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