Wordle Is About a Third as Popular as It Once Was

There's no arguing Wordle was a massive phenomenon when its creator, Josh Wardle, sold it to the New York Times for somewhere in the low seven figures last year. As a society, however, we no longer seem to be quite as obsessed with it as we were back when everyone, or so it seemed, was sharing their scores on social media every day and celebrities were talking about the word game in their media interviews. The BBC wonders whether we've "fallen out of love with Wordle," and notes that Google Trends data suggests the game is about a third as popular as it was during its peak.

The head of games at the Times, however, says that's to be expected. "It's obviously come down off of its viral craze as any viral game will, and games that go viral like that don't come along that often. They often sort of pop and drop—and this one definitely hasn't," he says. "I can't disclose specific numbers but tens of millions of people play every week. We are still seeing a pretty high level of audience engagement and I would say we're pleased with it." Two celebrities who are still talking about Wordle: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck; Affleck told Kelly Clarkson on her talk show Monday that Damon won't let him in to his celebrity Wordle group, which he calls "the Nerdle league." (More Wordle stories.)