Why did the New York Times buy Wordle?
If you've not heard of Wordle, you've probably lived under a rock for the last six months.
Wordle is this highly addictive word puzzle solving game that started off taking Twitter by storm towards the end of last year and everyone else over the Christmas holidays. Then at the end of January this year, the New York Times bought the game for a 'low 7 figure amount'. So more than a million dollars. The game is ad-free. It is free to play. And one of its bizarre quirks and/or charms is that you can only play once a day. It is hard to monetise if you keep the game the same. If you change it or start adding pre-roll ads, you'll probably begin to lose players by the bucketful. It's left many people asking, 'Why did the New York Times buy Wordle?'
I'll give you six guesses!
Ok, I'll give you six reasons.
Audience Numbers
Perhaps the first and most obvious reason is that they couldn't resist the audience. Many people were and are playing that game every day. The New York Times says it is about 300,000 a day. While there are no ads in the traditional sense, the page header now says "Wordle - The New York Times", and it sits on a New York Times domain -https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html.
I'm not sure how many, but a proportion of those 300k people playing every day will start to explore the New York Times. Some will even notice that the link includes the word games and start looking at the other games. So, it's subtle, but there is already some advertising for the New Your Times.
Audience Alignment
I have memories of my father sitting down every Saturday morning and doing the crossword in the newspaper. He was a big fan of the cryptic crossword. He was smart and could generally finish it in 30-40 minutes. Many people used to buy newspapers for the crossword. But of course, the type of people who enjoy a crossword is also the type of people whom newspapers want to be their customers. Good synergy. The New York Times knows that Wordle fans are the right demographic for them to target as potential customers.
Games are Powerful for a brand
The power of a game for any brand is often underestimated. A well-designed game will take players through a journey of positive emotions and experiences that trigger powerful chemical reactions in the brain. Anticipation. Challenge. Excitement. Joy. Pleasure. Fulfilment. In a small proportion of players, this can trigger and drive addiction. For most of us, it just makes us want to play again. When people start playing Wordle, like many good games, they tend to come back and play again and again and again. Many of those powerful positive feelings that a short round of Wordle generates are now unconsciously associated with the New Your Times.
It's pretty cool
There is no doubt that Wordle is a great game. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that it is a great game mechanic. Five letter words, six guesses, it just works. The one play per day is interesting, too; it's the kind of feature that you might put in when you have the luxury of not having to monetise your game. You may even put in a feature like that to limit the amount of traffic to your website and limit the costs of hosting the game. Very little content is limited these days because, in general, you are limiting your revenue when you limit your traffic. So Wordle stands out. It's different, and the mechanic works. All that contributes to it being an excellent product to own.
Wordle Results Sharing
Perhaps the most innovative part of Wordle is how the results sharing works. When you share your game after a win, the game dynamically creates an icon illustrating your particular game. It shows the number of guesses, the correct letters in each guess, all in a little multicoloured Wordle icon seen all over Twitter every day. If Wordle didn't pioneer this sharing icon, it certainly made it famous. It is this that has helped Wordle continue to grow. That icon sets a challenge for everyone who sees it, and we all like to take on a challenge. I would imagine that the brand recognition of Wordle is exceptionally high for a small, relatively new game. Brand recognition equals value.
Future Potential
Perhaps the biggest reason that the New York Times bought Wordle is the future potential of the game. For many game designers, we see a great mechanic, but it is really just the start of a complete game. Many players might not want the game to grow or evolve or change, yelling, "don't spoil it!" Be prepared; I am sure there are new features and spin-offs in the works for those who want more than a daily fix, those who want it easier or harder, for those who want it timed. Then there are subject-specific versions. And what about an app? With subscription? You've probably seen all the wordle spin-offs that have been created already. (if not, take a look at these). These demonstrate the potential of the mechanic and how the simple Wordle game could develop into something much bigger, and dare I say, better, with an even broader appeal that could generate quite significant income.
When you add up all six reasons, maybe the New York Times got a bargain.
Does your business need its own 'Wordle'?
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the Wordle phenomenon is that it demonstrates that games are not just about shooting and killing, and games are not just for kids and young adults males. The stats have been showing this for years, with the average age of game players now being 34 in Australia and 47% of them are female. When a serious, high brow brand like the New York Times buys a game, then you know that a game could work for almost any brand. It really depends on the brand and the game. It's certainly well past the time of thinking that games are to keep the kids happy. The right game will drive serious amounts of the right traffic, can help communicate key brand messages, help you gather valuable user data and can even be monetised directly.
The other great thing about games like Wordle is that they don't require a considerable investment. For a lot less than the New York Times paid (and I mean a LOT less), you could have your very own Wordle, custom created for you.
Contact us for an informal chat about a game for your brand.