Wordle 'current streak' problem fixed, says New York Times
The game began redirecting to a Times website on Thursday, and some players reported problems.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
The New York Times purchased the online word game Wordle for a price in the "low seven figures," and some fans are concerned the game will change.
The New York Times bought popular online word game Wordle late last month, and some fans immediately began to worry the free and easy-to-use game would be ruined. On Thursday, the game began redirecting to a Times website. While players could still play Wordle, some noticed their game statistics, including win streaks and guess distribution, were resetting.
The newspaper tweeted a note to players, saying, "Hi Wordlers! We are aware that your 'current streak' has been reset today. Our Games team is currently investigating. Stay tuned for more Wordle updates."
Hi Wordlers! We are aware that your "current streak" has been reset today. Our Games team is currently investigating. Stay tuned for more #Wordle updates.
— NYTimes Wordplay (@NYTimesWordplay) February 10, 2022
"Shortly after starting to redirect traffic to our Wordle site at 2:30 p.m. ET, we identified an issue that affected how a player's Current Streak was calculated," a New York Times spokesperson told me via email. "We discovered the root of the issue and deployed a solution around 7 p.m. ET. We can confirm this solution is working for users that visited the New York Times's Wordle page after the fix was released."
But what about those who went to the game site between 2:30 and 7 p.m. ET, and seem to have lost their streak? Can they get it back? The Times spokesperson told me that workers are "now shifting our focus" to address that issue, so stay tuned.
"We are seeing promising indicators that all other statistics were successfully transferred for a majority of our users," the spokesperson told me.
Earlier in the day, fans reacted on social media, with one person writing, "The Times screwed up this simple little pleasure faster than expected."
The Times screwed up this simple little pleasure faster than expected. #Wordle
— John Heaner (@JohnHeaner) February 10, 2022
Another wrote, "Honestly the NYT killing my Wordle streak is worse than their worst op-eds."
Honestly the NYT killing my Wordle streak is worse than their worst op-eds. pic.twitter.com/hTNBM5kDL7
— Sacha Judd (@sachajudd) February 10, 2022
I tried playing on the new site before the Times deployed their fix, and my current streak was reset. But not everyone was having the streak problem. Some CNET staffers played on the new site, and found their streak and other statistics carried over.
We have a list of other games similar to Wordle if you need some additional brain exercise.
Wordle is the brainchild of software engineer Josh Wardle, who created the game as a gift for his game-loving partner.
