Wordle Archive Shut Down by New York Times

By Christian Hoffer

An archive of old Wordle puzzles has been pulled down by the New York Times. The website "Wordle Archive" was recently shut down, with a message on their site noting that it was at the request of the New York Times, which purchased Wordle earlier this year. "Sadly, the New York Times has requested that the Wordle Archive be taken down," the message read, before directing visitors to the official Wordle page on the New York Times' website. The makers of Wordle Archive also noted they had made their own game – Word Grid – which is also free to play and involves players trying to form words using a grid of nine letters that reset when a letter is used. The site appears to have been taken down last week. Wordle Archive previously allowed players to try their luck at past Wordle puzzles, with no one-a-day limit like the official website.

When reached by Ars Technica about the takedown, a representative from the New York Times confirmed that they had been in touch with the website. "The usage was unauthorized, and we were in touch with them," the representative said. "We don't plan to comment beyond that."

The New York Times purchased Wordle last month in a seven-figure transaction, and they filed a trademark for the word "Wordle" the same day. That trademark likely allows the New York Time to have a legal case against anyone who either uses the word "Wordle" in their webpage or uses the same basic color presentation and game format. It would be much harder for the New York Times to claim ownership of the underlying rules of Wordle, although their trademark could be applied to any knockoff or copycat that an average user might confuse for an official Wordle product. 

Millions of people still play Wordle daily, and the New York Times has so far kept the game free-to-play. However, many players have seen their Wordle streak broken in recent days due to several tricky puzzles. 

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