The Rapid Rise of Wordle

R A P I D and V I R A L would be pretty good opening words if you were playing a round of Wordle about the game itself. As the latest figures provided to Statista by Similarweb show, If you haven't heard of the game yet, you're increasingly likely to be in the minority. Back in October last year, Wordle, an online word guessing game with a new challenge available daily, registered less than 5,000 visits to its web page. By January, traffic had skyrocketed to over 45 million before the month was even over.

That's an increase of over 900,000% in less than four months.

This whirlwind rise from obscurity to viral hit has not gone unnoticed, or unrewarded, for the one-man team that had initially made the game to play with his wife. While an exact figure has not been disclosed, the New York Times announced on Monday that it had acquired Wordle from its creator for a price "in the low seven figures”. If you're already hooked on the game there's apparently no need to worry, though. The NYT has said in a press release that it will remain free for new and existing players, and the format will not be changed. G R E A T