In his announcement of the sale — for a price that The New York Times’ announcement reports is “an undisclosed price in the low seven figures” — Wardle explains that running the hugely popular game has “been a little overwhelming,” especially considering that he’s the only person who actually handles running the entire game.
Wordle was originally created by Wardle as a gift for his partner, Palak Shah, after the two of them got hooked on word games (like the Times’ Spelling Bee and crosswords) during the pandemic. It was publicly released in late 2020 but has since exploded in popularity, thanks in part to the viral, emoji-based messages that allow players to share how they did on the daily puzzle without spoiling it for others.
While Wardle kept Wordle as an intentionally free, web-based experience, the app was quickly copied by multiple clones that sought to capitalize on the game’s popularity with knockoff iPhone apps. Apple quickly banned those apps from the App Store following reports that put a spotlight on the clones, although Wordle’s skyrocketing success has also helped lift up older, unrelated word games, too.
