The New York Times

When you think of the New York Times, you might not just think about the news content that they share.

When you think of the New York Times, you might not just think about the news content that they share.  Recently, they have become popular for their daily online games.  Some of their most popular games are Wordle, Connections, and the Crossword Mini.  

Teens and adults alike agree on the popularity and entertainment value that these games have to offer.  They are enjoyed by many because of their ability to challenge peoples’ brains each day with a new puzzle.  No matter what the game is, it seems that the New York Times has created captivating puzzles that both students of Northport High School and others around the world can enjoy.  

When students are in class at school, have some downtime, or are relaxing in the Commons, they may be playing some of the games that the New York Times has to offer.  Many students opt to play these games because they are simple yet can challenge their minds to think outside of the box.  

Oftentimes, you will also hear students ask each other if they have “gotten the Wordle” or “solved the Connections” throughout the day.  These games have become something that students are able to use as a means of bonding and relating to each other.  

Starting in 2021, the New York Times started to see an increase in daily usage of their website for their games.  This happened because of the new game called Wordle which was created by software engineer Josh Wardle and released in October of 2021.  The purpose of the game is to try to guess the five-letter word that had been selected for the day.  

Initially, the game only had 90 daily players, but the numbers increased dramatically by January of 2022 when more people discovered it.  By this time, it appeared that over 300,000 people were playing the game daily.  The increase in the desire to play the game came from social media and people sharing their scores daily to show how long it took them to solve the puzzle.  

Once more and more people began to see how enjoyable the game was to play, they shared it with their friends and families and made it even more of a sensation.  As a result of this, the number of players increased from 300,000 to two million in a matter of weeks.

Before Wordle, there were already New York Times games such as Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles, and Vertex.  Although these were also on the website, they did not catch as much attention as the game of Wordle did.  Because of the striking success that the New York Times experienced because of Wordle, they decided to create even more games for users to play.  

The introduction of games such as Connections made the New York Times puzzles even more popular.  This game had its beta debut on June 12, 2023, and challenged users to group 16 random words into four different categories.  Although the game has become increasingly popular, it is still not as popular as Wordle which is still ranked number one out of the collection of New York Times games.  

Whether you simply have some time to waste or play the New York Times games daily to challenge yourself, there is no doubting their increase in popularity in recent years.  Many teens and adults alike can agree that the games have piqued their interest and have now become a part of their daily routine.  

Northport High School students especially are notorious for playing these games every day.  After all, it is always fun to compare your results to friends, family members, or colleagues in the games that the New York Times has to offer.