Wordle Archive Shuts Down After New York Times Issues Legal Demand

When Wordle took off, it wasn't long before unofficial offshoots and new twists on the word-guessing formula hit the scene. While Wordle creator Josh Wardle didn't seem to be bothered by these imitators, Wordle's new owner The New York Times is looking to secure the intellectual property it acquired in January and has begun this process by issuing a takedown notice to Wordle Archive.

The Wordle Archive is an open-source tool created by designer Devang Thakkar and functions as a back-catalog in case you missed out on your daily Wordle puzzle. Thakkar launched the site in January and later tweeted that it was getting over 100,000 users a day.

The site has now been replaced with a message stating that it has been taken down at the request of The New York Times and discontinued. "The usage was unauthorized, and we were in touch with them," a New York Times representative said to Ars Technica. "We don't plan to comment beyond that."

What this means for other Wordle imitators is unclear, as their continued existence will be dependent on The New York Times and how it protects the Wordle IP by clamping down on games that copy its format.

There's no shortage of these games either, as they include the likes of dungeon crawler Dungleon, the salty language game Lewdle, the Swiftie-themed Taylordle, and a battle royale game called Squabble.