How To Keep Playing Wordle for Free As Users Question Game's Future

Internet users have found a way to ensure that Wordle stays free forever, and all you have to do is right click and save the website.

Wordle is an online puzzle game that has captivated millions since it was released by Welsh software developer Josh Wardle in the autumn of 2021.

For the uninitiated, the game is simple. Users have six attempts to guess a five-letter word using nothing but trial and error, and everyone gets the same word regardless of time or location. The word is changed every 24 hours.

This week, The New York Times Company announced that it had purchased the rights to Wordle from Wardle for an undisclosed seven-figure sum. As such, the game will at some point be moved to The New York Times games website.

In a tweet on Monday, Wardle said he was working to make sure that people's wins and streaks will be preserved following the website shift. At the time of writing, Wordle is still hosted on Wardle's website, powerlanguage.co.uk.

While Wardle and The New York Times Company have both said that the game will initially remain free to play at the time it moves to The New York Times website, some internet users have speculated that it could one day be paywalled off—though The New York Times Company has not indicated that this will be the case. Newsweek has contacted it for comment.

In any case, there is a way around such an eventuality. Computer users can literally just save the current powerlanguage.co.uk version of Wordle and keep it on their desktop, and it will continue to work even without an internet connection.

First, access powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/ and right-click anywhere on the page. Then, click "save as" and save the complete webpage file anywhere on your computer—the desktop might be simplest for quick access. That's it.

This is possible because Wordle is "a tiny game that runs entirely in the browser" according to Aaron Rieke, managing director of the technology equality group Upturn, in a Twitter thread. This means that Wordle is self-contained and doesn't need any external updates to work.

Newsweek was able to confirm this by saving Wordle to a computer desktop and checking the game's source code. Sure enough, dozens and dozens of past words and—crucially—future words that have not yet been revealed are all there.

Rieke added: "So you could save a copy of the website right now, unplug your computer from the internet, and play Wordle every day for years."