The pressure was on for the New York Times to find its next hit game after the success of Connections and Wordle. Enter Strands, a word search game that officially joined the newspaper’s portfolio of games Friday following a successful four-month testing phase. Despite being practically hidden during testing, Strands garnered millions of players and is now set to be added to the Times’ Games app.
Jonathan Knight, head of Games at the Times, admitted, “Strands got very big, very quickly. It was a little bigger than we were ready for in the first few days.” The game gained popularity partly due to Connections, which referred many players to Strands. As the Times’ Games section continues to grow, Strands will join a collection of ten games in the app, including the Crossword, Spelling Bee, and Soduku.
What sets Strands apart is its unique gameplay. The game features a 6-by-8 grid of letters with a category hint on the top. Players must find words relating to the theme as well as the “spanagram,” which describes what all the words have in common. With a high solve rate of 81%, players are also given hints if they struggle, making the game accessible to a wide audience.
Games have been crucial to the Times’ strategy in boosting revenue beyond advertising, especially as the news industry faces challenges. The Times currently has 9.7 million digital-only subscribers, with games being played more than 8 billion times last year. The success of games has even prompted other companies to create their own.
Despite the success of Strands and other games in the app, Knight and his team are already looking ahead. “The bar is high now,” he said. “We’ve got a number of high-quality games in the app. As we go forward, we’re certainly not done and we think there’s room for more games, but we’re being even more thoughtful than ever.”
