The New York Times’ puzzle and games were played more than 8 billion times last year, the company tells Axios exclusively, led by breakout hit Wordle, with 4.8 billion plays — and a Games app redesign is on the way.
Why it matters: The stats underscore gaming’s increasing importance to the paper, which offers a $6/month games-only subscription, as well as costlier packages of games bundled with news and more.
The big picture: Offerings beyond news — such as cooking and product recommendations — are increasingly central to the Times’ ability to grow amid a bloodbath in the broader journalism industry.
- The company’s subscription revenue increased nearly 10% to $418.6 million in the third quarter of 2023 — with digital product earnings rising nearly 16%, to $282.2 million, driven in part by bundles.
By the numbers: The NYT Games app was downloaded 10 million times last year, the company tells Axios, while players made 2.3 billion successful Connections — a relatively new game about finding associations among words.
Read more at: https://www.axios.com