In the annals of digital innovation, few creations have captivated the world with such elegant simplicity as Wordle. Developed by Josh Wardle, a software engineer based in Brooklyn, this five-letter word-guessing game began as a private diversion for his partner, Palak Shah, who adored word puzzles. What started in 2021 as a lockdown project exploded into a global phenomenon, drawing millions daily and culminating in its acquisition by The New York Times for a low seven-figure sum.

Wardle, originally from Abergavenny, Wales, honed his skills at Reddit, where he engineered viral experiments like The Button and r/place. A 2013 prototype named Mr. Bugs’ Wordy Nugz evolved during the pandemic, inspired by The New York Times‘ own Spelling Bee and crossword. Shah curated the word list, narrowing 12,000 five-letter terms to 2,500 common ones, ensuring accessibility. Released publicly on powerlanguage.co.uk in October 2021, it surged from 90 players by November 1 to 300,000 within weeks, then two million.

The game’s genius lay in its constraints: one puzzle daily, six guesses, color-coded feedback—green for correct position, yellow for misplaced letters, gray for absent. No ads, no data mining. Players shared emoji grids on social media, fueling virality without spoilers. “It has been incredible to watch the game bring so much joy to so many,” Wardle said in a statement after the sale, as reported by BBC News.

Prototype to Viral Explosion

Wardle’s prior Reddit tenure informed Wordle’s communal spark. At Pinterest and back at Reddit, he built tools for massive user interaction. The pandemic reignited his prototype when he and Shah dove into Times puzzles. “We got really into The New York Times’s Spelling Bee and daily crossword puzzle,” Wardle told The New York Times. He mimicked their minimalist design and daily limit, creating scarcity that hooked players.

By December, Wardle added the share feature after spotting emoji recreations from New Zealand friends. Twitter saw 1.2 million result shares from January 1-13, 2022. Peak hype hit 500,000 daily tweets. Wardle, overwhelmed, resisted monetization. “My biggest sense, actually, right now, isn’t joy. It’s relief,” he confided to TIME post-sale.

Clones flooded app stores, profiting off his idea. “Something about that felt really deeply unpleasant,” Wardle shared at the Game Developers Conference, per The Independent. This pressure accelerated his decision to sell.

Swift NYT Acquisition

Jonathan Knight, NYT Games general manager, contacted Wardle on January 5, 2022, days after a Times profile. The deal closed by month’s end. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen us move on an acquisition this fast,” chief product officer Alex Hardiman noted, according to Wikipedia. Wardle admired NYT’s player respect: “This step feels very natural to me.”

The purchase integrated Wordle into NYT Games, alongside Spelling Bee and Connections. Fears of paywalls arose—the word “initially” in announcements sparked backlash—but it stayed free. “We could not be more thrilled to become the new home,” Knight said in NYT Company press release.

Wordle drove “tens of millions” of new users, per TechCrunch, boosting subscriptions toward 10 million by 2025. In Q1 2022 earnings, it amplified puzzle engagement.

Enduring Impact and Evolution

Post-acquisition, NYT added WordleBot in April 2022 for solve analysis and synced it to the Crossword app. Offensive words were culled. By 2025, NYT Games logged 11.2 billion plays; Wordle alone hit 4.2 billion, as detailed in Brooklyn Eagle. Subscribers reached 12.33 million by September 2025, up 9%.

Wardle joined Brooklyn’s MSCHF from December 2021 to May 2023, then freelanced via Powerlanguage before Gremco Industries. Shah called it “really sweet… how Josh shows his love,” per Daily Mail. At ACPT 2022, Wardle hosted a live version, reinvigorating family chats.

NYT’s model emphasizes “healthy daily habit,” Knight told Brooklyn Eagle. “We’re respectful of your time… We want you to feel good.” Games now form a “solar system” around news, fueling 14% digital revenue growth. Professor Dan Kennedy hailed it as “a huge boon to the journalism.”

Brooklyn Roots and Lasting Legacy

Wardle’s Brooklyn life infused Wordle with urban creativity. From MSCHF’s experimental drops to his Reddit origins, his career blended art and code. The game hosted at nytimes.com/games/wordle endures, with 5.3 billion 2024 plays claiming 47.7% of NYT Games traffic, via CommandLinux.

Recent X posts echo its grip: NYT touted its origins in 2022 threads, while 2026 buzz links to Crossplay debuts. Wardle’s improbable hit proves viral purity trumps hype. As Knight reflected, “I knew we could get to this scale… I didn’t think we could get to it in this amount of time.” Wordle transformed NYT, validating puzzles as subscription engines in media’s shift.

For industry watchers, Wordle’s arc—from Brooklyn bedroom code to billions of solves—illuminates indie potential amid corporate scale. It united families, sparked rivalries, aided recoveries, as Wardle noted. Four years on, its daily ritual persists, a testament to thoughtful design.