Updated: 25 May 2026 · Reading time: 5 minutes
Wordle® is now played by millions daily — including a large chunk of New Zealand. But in mid-2021, it didn’t exist. By the start of 2022 it was a Twitter sensation. By the end of 2022, The New York Times had bought it for a low seven-figure sum.
2021: The original Wordle®, built for one person
The story starts with Josh Wardle, a Welsh software engineer in New York. In 2013 he’d built a popular Reddit experiment called “Place” (the collaborative pixel art canvas). He kept building small web experiments in his spare time.
In early 2021, he built Wordle® for his partner, Palak Shah, who loved word games. Mechanics simple: one daily five-letter word, six guesses, green/yellow/grey feedback.
Wardle and Shah played for months. Friends asked to try it. By October 2021, Wardle made it public at powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/.
Initial player count, October 2021: 90.
December 2021: The Twitter share moment
Viral moment came when Wardle added one feature: a share button that copied your result as coloured squares.
This single feature changed everything. Players posted daily scores on Twitter. The grids were visually distinctive. People who’d never seen the game asked what those green squares were.
- By 1 January 2022: 300,000 daily players
- By 25 January 2022: 2 million daily players
Vertical growth in three weeks.
January 2022: New Zealand joins in
NZ players caught on mid-January 2022. First noticeable NZ uptake at universities — Auckland, Wellington, Otago — students sharing daily grids in group chats.
By February 2022, Kiwi office Slack channels had dedicated Wordle® threads. Stuff.co.nz published its first Wordle® explainer.
Two specifically Kiwi quirks emerged:
- NZ players realised they got each new puzzle 18 hours before the US. Small source of pride.
- Kiwi players had a slight advantage on NZ-friendly words (MARAE was accepted as a guess).
January 31, 2022: The NYT buyout
On 31 January 2022, The New York Times announced they had bought Wordle® from Josh Wardle for a “low seven-figure sum” (estimated USD 2-3 million, NZD 3.2-4.7 million).
Wardle said the game had “got bigger than I ever imagined”. The NYT promised:
- Wordle® would remain free.
- Migration to NYT website.
- No fundamental gameplay changes.
The promise was kept. Today, Wordle® is still free on the NYT site.
What changed after the NYT acquisition
Curated answer list
NYT trimmed the original answer list. Unusual words were removed (AGORA, COVET). Game became slightly easier.
Sensitive word removal
After high-profile incidents, NYT removed sensitive terms.
Streak tracking moved server-side
Original Wordle® stored streak in cookies. NYT Wordle® lets you log in.
Wordle® became part of NYT Games
Now alongside Connections, Spelling Bee, Crossword, Sudoku.
2022-2023: The clones, the variants
Within months, dozens of Wordle®-style clones appeared:
- Quordle — four boards at once.
- Octordle — eight boards.
- Heardle — audio Wordle®, bought by Spotify mid-2022.
- Worldle — geography Wordle®.
NZ players adopted most. By late 2022, the “morning puzzle stack” of Wordle® + Connections + Heardle was Kiwi commuter routine.
2024-2026: Wordle® matures into a daily habit
Wordle® stopped being a “viral moment” and became permanent internet culture. Daily player numbers stabilised in the millions globally, NZ contributing a small but loyal share.
Current 2026 trends:
- Older players (2022 wave) have streaks in the high hundreds or low thousands.
- Wordle® entered NZ schools as a daily Year 6-8 activity.
- Subject-specific Wordle® clones (Maths Wordle®, NZ-place-name Wordle®) emerged.
FAQ
Q: First Wordle® answer? CIGAR — Wordle® #1, 19 June 2021.
Q: How much did NYT pay? Officially “low seven-figure sum” — analysts estimate USD 2-3 million.
Q: Is Josh Wardle still involved? No. After acquisition he moved on to other projects.
Q: Will Wordle® ever charge? NYT has promised the daily Wordle® stays free. Archive is behind subscription.
Q: Where did “Wordle” come from? Pun on Wardle’s surname.
The takeaway
Wordle® went from 90 daily players to millions in three months. Five years later, it’s a quietly enduring part of Kiwi daily life.
For more strategy and tips: homepage. NZ-first daily hints, free solver tool, no spoilers above the fold.
Wordle® is a registered trademark of The New York Times Company. This site is an independent fan companion not affiliated with The New York Times Company.