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Since lockdowns started nearly two years ago, there has been a myriad of pandemic-induced internet obsessions. “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” do-it-yourself sourdough starters and puzzles were some of the first ones to captivate the quarantined masses, but even as restrictions lift and life slowly creeps back to normal, there’s a new addition to tack onto the list: Wordle.

For the uninitiated, Wordle is pretty simple. It’s a game in which you try to guess a five-letter word in only six guesses. It was developed by a lone software developer named Josh Wardle and was meant to be a fun daily game for his family and friends.

In early 2022 though, the game experienced a meteoric rise in popularity, with two million players using their linguistic skills to deduce the word of the day. It became increasingly viral as people shared their scores on Twitter, bragging about how they got the word in two guesses or complaining that it took them five.

“It’s a worrying trend in the mobile software market that free and accessible games, sites and apps are being bought up and monetized by giant corporations.”

Game mechanics and popularity aside though, Wordle was something of an inspirational story. Rather than being a complex video game with a team of developers and a professional studio behind it, it was a one-man show. One developer and his love for linguistics created a simple game that enamored millions of people worldwide. To me, that was part of the game’s charm. It wasn’t a mass-manufactured operation engineered to captivate an audience, it was a homegrown experience that felt special.

That homemade appeal the game had was all but taken away when The New York Times bought Wordle about a month ago.

The New York Times paid Wardle an undisclosed sum in the millions for the game. The game went from being in the hands of a single developer who built it from scratch to being owned by a corporation worth more than $7 billion.

While The New York Times has said the game will “initially remain free,” there remains a distinct likelihood that a free-to-play game that was designed to be open and accessible will soon be locked behind a paywall.

“Free and accessible software, often created by a single developer, is increasingly being bought up by massive corporations who want to prioritize turning a profit over providing users with good experiences.”

It’s a worrying trend in the mobile software market that free and accessible games, sites and apps are being bought up and monetized by giant corporations.

More often than not, free apps, websites or products aren’t monetized behind paywalls directly. The best example of this trend is Instagram, which is one of the most popular in the world. It — like Wordle — was initially designed by a lone developer to be a free, simple photo sharing app. Shortly after, the app was bought by Facebook for $1 billion, and ever since, the app has devolved into a money-making machine.

Nearly one in four Instagram posts are ads. The app has its own dedicated shopping platform. Instagram keeps adding features like Stories and Reels that rip off other social media apps in order to balloon its market value. All of these additions, while free to the user, only exist to create a profit off an app that was originally less concerned with ad revenue.

Another parallel to the Wordle saga is that of microtransactions in mobile games. When the iPhone was new and the market was fresh, most mobile games were free to play or had a one-time purchase of a couple bucks to play. Recently though, the market has pivoted to the “freemium” business model. Rather than creating games that are free to play or don’t drain your bank account, developers are focusing on in-game microtransactions that stand to turn a huge profit.

The point I’m trying to drive home is that whether it’s Wordle, Instagram or a mobile game, there’s an unfortunate pattern that’s cropping up in the mobile industry. Free and accessible software, often created by a single developer, is increasingly being bought up by massive corporations who want to prioritize turning a profit over providing users with good experiences.

While Wordle remains accessible and free to play — for now — the reality is that The New York Times has the ability to lock the game behind a paywall at any moment. And if the past is any indication, that possibility may very well become a reality.

Reach Dylan Tusinski at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @unwashedtiedye.