Wordle is now available in The New York Timess Crossword app for both iOS and android users. The addictive guessing game joins both The New York Times Crossword Variations, Spelling Bee and more. Users can also continue to play the game on their desktop and via the mobile website.
The word guessing game became an instant phenomenon after it was released in October 2021. The Time then acquired Wordle in January from its creator Josh Wardle. That decision was not without complaints, as users began to speculate that the game had become more difficult and some of their streaks had been ruined. Despite complaints after the acquisition, The Time said the game is allowed The Time to see a jump in new subscribers at its earnings meeting in May, now saying that as of July, about 10 percent of “active” players have played more than 145 games of Wordle.
In addition to addressing the complaints, The Time has tweaked the game throughout the year. It introduced the WordleBot to web Wordle players in April to help analyze each puzzle to come up with the best starting word for the game. The company eventually modified the WordleBot to recommend a new starting word and changed the identity to WordleBot 2.0. As cool as it is, WordleBot was only available to specific subscribers. Recently, The New York Times announced that it is partnering with Hasbro to release Wordle as a physical board game in October.
Integrating the game into the Crossword app seems like an easy way to keep the game for interested players, although some are still wary that Wordle or some of its features could eventually get a paywall, requiring a subscription with The times. The game will continue to be available for free on both the mobile app and the desktop website.
