VIRAL WORD CRAZE EARNS MAJOR MONEY
A COUPLE OF HOURS AFTER THE NEW YORK TIMES ANNOUNCED on Jan. 31 that it had acquired the online word game known as Wordle, its inventor was still looking for the right word—this time, for his emotions.
“My biggest sense, actually, right now, isn’t joy. It’s relief,” Josh Wardle, who was paid a reported “low seven figures” for the daily puzzle, told me. It was our second conversation in as many days.
The day before, he’d betrayed no hint of any impending windfall. In fact, much of the conversation was about how Wordle—a simple game that gives
