It might be hard to believe that Wordle, an online word guessing game that broke the internet at the start of this year, is not even a year old.
But the online game has been through quite a journey.
During the pandemic, former Reddit software developer Josh Wardle designed the game for his partner Palak Shah, who was absorbed by word games like the New York Times Spelling Bee and Crossword.
The game launched in October 2021.
It comes within a grid of five by six squares, and can be played only once a day with a maximum of six attempts.
What followed over the next couple of months was a dramatic rise in users who were consumed by the games premise.
It became the new fun thing to do online that wasn't attempting to be nefarious with your information or data.
The five-letter puzzle that appears to be simple, grew from 90 players in November 2021 to over two million in early January.
Soon after that, the New York Times company bought Wordle for a "low-seven-figure" sum as part of its gaming division.
Waning Popularity
But the viral word game has since lost out on users, according to data cited on social media platform Reddit.
The stats above are based on the number of users who tweeted their daily Wordle results.
The drop in popularity could also be because users have found ways to cheat the game.
A March WordFinderX report, based on a Google Trends data analysis of the past three months, showed that Wordle users have been cheating by looking up puzzle answers.
Searches for Wordle answers on search engine Google reached its peak in February, the study noted.
Anecdotally, user posts on social media suggest that people might quit the game after they've reached peak Wordle.
In other words, they guessed the right word in their first guess or the second one.
Knock-Offs Are Appearing
The game's novelty factor may be declining due to other familiar options.
There is a string of Wordle-like games that have also hit the internet ever since including Quordle and Nerdle among others.
The cliche that imitation is the best form of flattery still holds.
Soon after the NYT deal was announced users anticipated a costly paywall that would take away their ability to play a game they had grown to love.
R.I.P. Wordle trended on Twitter (TWTR).
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NYT Says Wordle Success Drove Best Quarter
But so far, the game continues to be free for both new and existing users.
The latest pop culture phenomenon is adding more subscribers to the Times online readership, the media company said when it announced its first quarter earnings.
“While we experienced real momentum in news, it was not the only driver of strength in the quarter," said President and Chief Executive Meredith Kopit Levien in a statement.
"Wordle brought an unprecedented tens of millions of new users to The Times, many of whom stayed to play other games which drove our best quarter ever for net subscriber additions to Games and we’re off to a great start on our work with The Athletic,"
The Times added 387,000 net digital subscribers in what it described as its best quarter yet.
"It was our best first quarter in terms of subscription growth since the launch of our digital subscription model outside of Q1 2020," Levien said.
"We added 387,000 net digital subscribers in the quarter, a number that includes The Athletic’s net additions subsequent to the closing of the acquisition," she said. "The Times now has 9.1 million total subscribers, with 10.4 million subscriptions."
