Wordle will be free forever – you just have to save it

Players of the viral gaming sensation Wordle have launched a campaign to keep the daily word puzzle free after it was bought by the New York Times for a seven-figure sum – but there may already be a way to keep it free forever.

The #KeepWordleFree campaign aims to prevent the beloved game from falling behind a paywall, despite the NYT assuring fans that it will “initially remain free to new and existing players”.

The game’s creator, software engineer Josh Wardle, also sought to address concerns by revealing that even after it moves to the newspaper’s website it will “be free to play for everyone”.

Wordle continues to be hosted on an ad-free website, though after paying millions of dollars for the game it seems likely that the NYT will attempt to monetise it in some way in the future.

But the way Wordle was set up by Mr Wardle means the entire game is run entirely within the web browser, meaning it can actually be downloaded and saved for free by anyone.

Technologist Aaron Rieke pointed out the method to keep Wordle free in a Twitter thread posted on Monday.

“You could save [a] copy of the website right now, unplug your computer from the internet, and play Wordle every day for years,” he explained.

“Or, you can go to any ‘mirror’ of the original Wordle website and play there. For example, here’s the Internet Archive’s versions, which will work for a long time.”

Players who either download the webpage or play through a mirror site would still be playing the same version of the game that Mr Wardle originally created.

“Wordle is so durable because it was never designed to be proprietary,” Mr Rieke noted. “It ‘trusts’ its users, which most software programs, even games, don’t do.

“All of this makes me wonder: What was actually sold (aside from IP in the name)? And does it even matter? Maybe not.”