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Wordle now has ads that track you

Shaun M Jooste

Shaun M Jooste

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When the New York time bought Wordle recently, it needed to think of a plan to recuperate the funds it spent. We all thought that it would possibly hide the game behind the subscription wall. Sadly, it seems like there’s a more basic solution: having ad-tracking in Wordle.

You may be wondering why anyone would consider this strange, as so many websites employ the same strategy. It boils down to the fact that there was no ad-tracking before when Wordle was in the hands of its owner, Josh Wardle. Of course, he didn’t know it was going to be an instant success and give him a seven-figure income.

Wordle now has ads that track you

Ok, let’s take a realistic step back for a moment. Those who are up in arms about this are the same group that shouted from the rooftops when EA introduced microtransactions in its games. When NYT bought Wordle, they didn’t only do so because it looked like a fun title to own. There was a business strategy as to how they could grow their revenue with a massive fan base.

After all, the New York Times is a business, isn’t it? And companies like NYT look for every opportunity to make returns on their investments. So shouldn’t we just be glad that having tracking adverts is the least serious action they could take in this regard? They could have made you take out a subscription or buy the game on Steam.

Anyway, we’ll see if this new move has any effect on the Wordle fan base. Those who have ad blockers or programs that stop trackers won’t be worrying about it anyway. If it does bother you, you can turn to the new Wordle geography version, Worldle.

Shaun M Jooste

Shaun M Jooste

I live in South Africa, Cape town, as a father of two children. I've been gaming almost all my life, with plenty of experience writing reviews and articles on the latest titles. With 15 years of experience in local government performing Facilities Management functions, I moved towards becoming CEO of my own company, Celenic Earth Publications, which serves to publish author's books, including my own. I'm a published author of horror and fantasy novels, while I also dabble in game and movie scriptwriting.

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