Wordle became a surprise hit during this past January due to many things--it's touching origin story (creator Josh Wardle made the program for his partner), low commitment, easy shareability, and the absence of a price tag. However, that last quality--zero cost for playing--will very likely not last long. The New York Times has purchased Wordle and while it'll remain free "initially," you're going to have to pay-to-play eventually.
Luckily, as discovered by multiple individuals on Twitter, you can save the whole game and have it for free forever. It's very easy to do so: right-click and choose save-as "Webpage, Complete." Now when you click wherever you saved it on your desktop, the game should open. I did the above instructions for mac, but if you're on PC, the procedure should be similar.
NYT says Wordle will stay free """"initially"""" which we all know means it'll be paywalled very quickly
— 🧠 Emmanuel Clement's Brain 🎶 (@ClementonicEm) January 31, 2022
Anyway I downloaded the javascript and copy-pasted relevant HTML into my own file so I can run it locally for free forever. You can just do that, if you want
I made a video to show how to save the source code of Wordle locally - to your computer - so you can run this happy game as a local web archive (free) FORVER.
— Katy Brown (@ItsMeKatyB) February 1, 2022
This will only work on desktop. 💪🏼 😘
@patrickhinds @rabiasquared pic.twitter.com/RuXKwl0j0W
Wordle already comes with 12,500 words, so you'd be able to play the saved version of Wordle for a good couple years before the game runs out of prompts. Alternatively, with a very committed friend, you can do this:
if nyt takes wordle away from us remember that all you need to access it for free is the power of imagination and one friend who also likes wordle. become ungovernable pic.twitter.com/6GNYk1yHg3
— rayne fisher-quann (@raynefq) February 1, 2022
With acquisitions running amok and consolidations seemingly inevitable, it's rare to have a short and sweet--and free!--word game everybody is affectionate of. Reactions on the internet to Wordle's sale seem to range from melancholy over the game's monetization to congratulating the maker for a timely sale.
It remains to be seen how NYT will respond to this workaround to keeping Wordle's free version and how the company will tweak the game to make it attract more NYT Games subscribers--which is, of course, the end goal of purchasing Wordle.