The owners of the hit online game Wordle are launching a legal challenge against its geography-based spin-off game Worldle.
In its filing, the New York Times said: Bought Wordle for a seven-figure sum In 2022, the company accused companies with names similar to its own of “creating confusion” and trying to take advantage of the “enormous goodwill” associated with its brand.
However, Worldle creator and software developer Cody McDonald has vowed to fight back, citing the large number of games with similar titles.
“The whole industry [dot]”It's an LE game,” he told the BBC.
“Wordle is about words, Worldle is about worlds and Flaggle is about flags,” he pointed out.
The New York Times disagrees.
Worldle is “substantially identical in appearance, sound and meaning to Wordle and conveys the same commercial impression,” legal documents state.
The paper told the BBC it would not comment beyond its legal filings.
Wordle began in 2021 as a side project for British inventor Josh Wardle to entertain his girlfriend.
But since then, it has become huge, reaching millions of people around the world.
By contrast, Seattle-based McDonald said about 100,000 people play Worldl each month.
It's not available as an app and can only be played via a web browser.
The game includes advertising, and there is an option to play it without it for £10 a year, but McDonald says most of the revenue from the game goes to Google because it uses Google Street View imagery that players must identify.
He picks a different one for himself each night for a new game the next day.
“It's pretty impressive to think that so many people are playing every month,” he said.
“I never expected it to be this successful.”
He's not the only one benefiting from Wordle's success. Others include:
- Quordle, a game where you guess four words at once
- Math-based challenge “Nerdle”
- Heardle based music identification
There's also a game called Worldle, where you identify countries by their outlines.
The New York Times declined to comment on whether it plans to pursue them as well.
Speaking to the BBC last year, head of games Jonathan Knight said imitation was “the greatest form of flattery”.
“We always [similar games] And I think they help keep the game fresh and alive.” He said then.
But this isn't the first time The New York Times has gone to court to defend its prize games.
In March 2024, Shetland dialect edition Wordle announced it was closing down following a copyright infringement claim from a publishing group.
David Levine, a copyright expert at Elon University Law School, suggested the end of McDonald's project may be near.
He said a one-letter difference between the two names could potentially be problematic, adding that “there are other aspects as well that could confuse consumers.”
“The pronunciation is correct,” he told the BBC.
“So we have to make an effort here to distinguish between Wordle and Worldle.”
Mr McDonald said he was “disappointed” that legal action was being taken against him but insisted he would not be deterred.
“It was a bit of a surprise because I'm the sole operator here,” he said.
“Worst case scenario, we'll have to change the name, but I think it'll be OK.”
Additional reporting by Francesca Hashemi