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• The NY Times is a Gaming Company 🤫 

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The NY Times is a Gaming Company 🤫 

In October 2021, Reddit Software Engineer Josh Wardle published his newly-created word game - “Wordle” on his website. At first, Wordle was a small project with a handful of users. However, the simplicity of Wordle’s design - a daily puzzle with just six chances to guess a five-letter word - quickly started garnering A LOT of attention.

As players began sharing their results, often in the form of cryptic green, yellow and gray boxes on Twitter and other platforms, the game went viral. Within a month, Wordle had grown from a niche pastime to a cultural phenomena with 300,000 daily players. 

By the end of year, Wordle had reached a whopping 2M daily players! And within just three months of creating the game, Wardle sold Wordle to The New York Times for low seven figures.

The Survival of the Fittest

Traditional media has been on a downfall as advertising revenues dwindle from the industry and are redirected to social media platforms. But not The New York Times. 

While other media companies are losing billions of dollars, The Times just crossed the $1B revenue mark just through their digital subscriptions. 

Their secret? They’ve realized that news is just one piece of the puzzle. They’ve branched out into all sorts of non-news products:

• The Athletic for sports fans.

• Cooking for “easy” weeknight recipes.

• Wirecutter for gadget geeks.

And of course, its prized possession - Games.

All media companies are trying to pivot from ad-first to subscription-first models as social media has disrupted the media advertising business model, but as a reader, how many publications are you going to really pay for? 

I already have so many subscriptions that my subscription list is starting to look like a grocery receipt.

Readers can only subscribe to so many news outlets before their wallets and attention spans are stretched thin. By offering a variety of products under one subscription, the Times is essentially saying, "Why not get your news AND your fun from us?"

This is evident from their numbers. The growth of digital subscribers is mostly due to selling bundles - where people get more value for their buck. The NYT is actually having so much success with its non-news products [Games, Wirecutter etc] that their single-product subscribers (which doesn’t include news) are now more than news-only subscribers. 

Okay. I see what you’re saying. But how is it a Gaming company?

The NY Times - A News Gaming Company

The NY Times might be best known for its long-running newspaper. But thanks to popular games like Wordle, Connections, Crossword Puzzles and more, it seems that the Times has now become a gaming company with a newspaper side-hustle.

The above chart shows that while the Time’s news app hasn’t seen much growth barring a few spikes during an election period or other major global event - the Games app has surged in popularity over the last four years. 

It appears that NYT’s games are far, far more popular with people than every other product the company now produces. 

The numbers don't lie. The NY Times Games app was downloaded 10M times last year and its puzzles and games were played 8B times. Wordle itself was played 4.8B times.

Who knew that cracking today’s Wordle would be more addictive than the latest political scandal?

To capitalize on the popularity of their games, the NYT strategically uses its games as a gateway to their $25/month All Access bundle, enticing users to explore and engage with their broader range of products.

These games are more than just fun - they keep people coming back every day. And once someone is hooked on a game like Wordle or the Crossword, they’re more likely to check out other things the Times offers, like their news or recipes. 

If you’re already playing a game every day, why not see what else is there. This strategy helps keep subscribers engaged with all the different features, not just the games. So, people might start with the games, but they end up using the whole package, making the bundle feel like a great deal.

The NY Times Games strategy is a bit different as well. Unlike most mobile games, they’re not trying to keep you glued to your screen for hours on end, bombarding you with ads that make you watch a 30-sec video just to close a fake “X” button.

Instead, their philosophy is more like a considerate house guest - pop in, have some fun, then get on with your day. 

They want their games to be a part of your daily routine, not the routine itself. 

This strategy sets the Times apart in the crowded mobile gaming market where most games are designed to keep players hooked for as long as possible. 

As the lines between media and entertainment continue to blur, could this be the future for all traditional news outlets?

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

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