Clouds preceded a sunny evening; I was happy to watch players hit and offer some comment earlier. Then a short time with Mr Agg. Walking back, it felt like “sometimes two” time. In my sphere, sunshine promotes drinking.
Thursdays are trivia night at one of the locals. Always popular, it’s a tightly run affair. Robbo asks the questions, not always with clarity, but generally with confidence. Parmi’s and steaks are shuttled to tables; the Boss lady coordinates staff and pretty much everything else—likely the Q-master’s brown envelope, too. It’s a decently-oiled machine.
I loiter, not belonging to a team, just interested in the questions. Trivia nights are people-watching heaven. Loiter and gander. Dave “Picko” lobbed. Good fella, loves cricket, well-travelled with English lines. Turns out he works with—loosely—an ‘ads’ contributor.
“The founder of Wordle is Josh…who?” You know the answer; it’s there. The harder you push recall, the more lost you get. Picko’s a trivia gun; he drew a blank, too. Fuck. It’s not that important; you know how it is, though.
Josh Wardle, of course, I knew that—a play on words, how obvious. Dumb ass. I love the story. His story. We’re trying to do the same with our app.
Wardle first prototyped it in 2013 and shelved it. During COVID, he revived it for his partner, who loved word games. An audience of one. He released it publicly in October 2021. By November, 90 people were playing. By January 2022, millions.
“The New York Times (NYT) bought it on January 31, 2022—four months after it went public—for a price described as “in the low seven figures,” somewhere between one and three million dollars.” Yes, please.
Is it still popular? Over four million daily players in 2026. Five years on. A five-letter word, six guesses, once a day. The simplicity is the point.
Did he get stitched? Low seven figures for a game now driving millions of daily users into the NYT subscription ecosystem. The Times’ games division passed one million subscribers before the acquisition. Wordle turbocharged that. If you’re being generous, Wardle got a life-changing sum for something he built in his spare time. If you’re being honest, the NYT got the deal of the decade.
Wardle said at the time: “I don’t understand why something can’t just be fun.”
Maybe that’s the answer. He built it for one person. It reached millions. He sold it before it became something he didn’t want to manage. Right place, right time—and the nous to walk when the going was good.
An audience of one—heard that before?
Nick
PS. Not tipsy!
