Thursday, July 9, 2026

Wordle, Popular Online Cult Word Game, Has Been Sold to the New York Times Company for Unknown Amount

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Wordle, which rhymes with Yertle the Turtle, has been sold.

The popular online word game that has cult status has been bought by the New York Times company for an undisclosed amount.

Wordle was purchased from its creator, Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, for a price “in the low seven figures,” The Times said.

The Times says the game will remain free until they can figure out how to charge for it. So get in your last free licks of five letters.

Here’s the link with all the bad news.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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