The New York Times Is Turning into a Gaming Company, Let That Sink In

New York Times games
In Short
  • As per the latest SEC reports, the New York Times is now considered a gaming company.
  • This pivot happened as more people started playing games on the NYT Games app, which comes with a New York Times news subscription.
  • Furthermore, games like Wordle, Crosswords, etc helped with this pivot towards the gaming company as news subscriptions for the famous news giant dwindled.

Of all the news I come across daily, I never thought the New York Times’s transformation into a gaming company would be one of them. After all, one of the biggest media conglomerates in the world can’t turn into a gaming establishment overnight, right? Well, it turns out it has, but it hasn’t been so sudden. Or at least, that’s what a new report mentions.

The revelation comes from a brand-new report by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As per the charts detailing how much time users spend on mobile apps, it looks like people are spending more time on the NYT Games app than the actual news app!

NYT games more traffic than news
Image Courtesy: US SEC

This has naturally resulted in substantial growth for NYT Games, while NYT News, NYT Cooking, and others have shrunk. This is based on customers’ time spent on the app playing games like Wordle, Crossword, and, of course, NYT Connections.

Furthermore, the NYT Games app has consistently ranked in the top ten on iOS and Android charts. As it stands, The Times has silently and slowly become a gaming company.

While a part of me is surprised by this, I also kind of expected it. The New York Timess has actually been releasing puzzle games since 1942, with games like Crossword. And we all know how it went: It became one of the single-most popular games that everyone has at least played once.

new york times games app showing wordle and connections
Image Courtesy: NYT Games (Play Store)

Similarly, in 2022, the New York Times purchased the popular Wordle game and later added it to the NYT Games app. And now, the media publication is creating a buzz with its new word search game called Strands. Follow our daily NYT Strands escapades for hints and answers.

As reported by Axios, the subscription to the game has helped the company survive in the current year. Since the news subscription hasn’t seen any important growth, bundling games has done wonders for them. And the results are right in front of us.

Do you play Wordle? Were you shocked by the news that the New York Times is becoming a gaming company? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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