The New York Times is celebrating its 1,000th Wordle with a big party, and you can cash in on the occasion.
On Friday, Mar. 15, the publication will be "rolling out the green and yellow and white carpet for a celebration that's as colorful as Wordle's iconic tiles, inspired by past five-letter Wordle solutions" in honor of its 1,000th Wordle.
"Players will be invited to experience a little extra delight when all their tiles turn green," said NYT in a press release. "Whether you’re a daily Wordle player or new to the game, all you have to do is solve the 1,000th Wordle to join the celebration in-person or virtually for a special treat."
Players who solve the 1,000th Wordle will be awarded special treats and freebies and "can join the celebration in-person at different locations in New York City or virtually," said the NYT in a press release.
Here are the giveaways up for grabs.
To unlock the prizes, Wordlers will need to solve the Mar. 15 Wordle and use the answer as a code. Further details on caps and limitations are available on the NYT website.
For Wordlers in and outside of New York City, the game has partnered with several brands to celebrate its 1,000th Wordle with special discounts and giveaways.
Wordle is a widely popular word game created by Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, as gift for his partner. It was acquired by the New York Times in January 2022 and in November 2022, Tracy Bennett, who joined the Times as an associate puzzle editor in 2020, was appointed its editor.
"I'm over the moon," Bennett told USA TODAY Friday about the approaching celebration. "Excited. I love Wordle and its continued popularity."
Bennett told USA TODAY that the word for the 1,000th Wordles has already been decided, since words for the game are decided up to 6 weeks in advance. Explaining the process behind the word selection, Bennett said that the words are selected at random, using a random number generator, from a word bank that has enough words to run the game through 2027.
"We already have like a database of words that Josh Wardle created when he created the game," said Bennett. "And I've been adding a few words. I think I've added about 25 words to the list so far.
Once a week's worth of words are selected, Bennett will review the words to assess their difficulty levels, "or [if] there are too many clusters of like nouns or like words that start with the same letter, or things like that".
She then also looks up the meanings of the words to ensure that they are not offensive or problematic.
"I will maybe take some words out and put other ones so that I have a nice variety throughout the week," said Bennett.
Once the words are selected, they are then run by a group of "testers," who give their feedback on the words and share how long it took them to solve the Wordle.
"We have a group of about six test solvers that test it for us to make sure that it's solvable and people are enjoying the words," said Bennett. "That's one of the reasons we [work] six weeks ahead, so that we can have that process built in."
Bennett, who resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said that she will be flying to New York for the celebrations and to celebrate the 1,000th Wordle with her colleagues when it goes live this Friday.
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @saman_shaafiq7.
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