Wordle was a lockdown phenomenon: one of those games that, merits aside, simply landed at the right time. I've kicked the habit now but like pretty much everyone else I had a Wordle phase with the family WhatsApp group and, yes, when I'm nearly out of chances I have gone running to my six-letter friend Google. Wordle's enormous popularity was such that, in January 2022, the New York Times purchased the game from creator Josh Wardle for a sum "in the low seven figures."
That was perhaps the most inspired move of a wider push by the gray lady to be a bit less, well, gray: especially when it comes to its burgeoning gaming section, which is now a major revenue driver for the paper. The NYT's games section is the subject of a new Vanity Fair feature, which covers the events around the game's acquisition.
