We break down one of the biggest and most misunderstood “games” in the world - NYT Games Wordle & crossword.
With over 8.5 million DAU, this app sits among the largest mobile games globally.
But here’s the twist:
👉 It barely monetizes like a game
👉 It relies mostly on subscriptions
👉 It avoids aggressive ad strategies completely
We dive into:
• Why NYT Games is a retention machine, not a game
• How Wordle, Connections, and Crosswords drive daily habits
• The massive ad revenue they are leaving on the table
• Why they will probably NEVER monetize like mobile games
NYT Games is not optimizing for revenue per user. It’s optimizing for lifetime value of the ecosystem.
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This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.
Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric
Podcast:
Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA
Chapters
00:00 Why this is not really a “game”
01:30 8.5M DAU explained
03:00 Subscription model breakdown
05:30 Wordle acquisition story
08:00 Portfolio of games (Connections, Spelling Bee, etc.)
11:00 Daily ritual design and retention
13:30 Monetization: subscriptions vs ads
16:00 The “lost” ad revenue opportunity
18:30 Why NYT won’t monetize like games
21:00 UA strategy (or lack of it)
23:00 Premium audience discussion
25:00 Final verdict — strategy vs money
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Matej Lancaric
User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant
https://lancaric.me
Felix Braberg
Ad monetization consultant
https://www.felixbraberg.com
Jakub Remiar
Game design consultant
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar
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Ireland