NYT Games - John Romanelli

OBJECTIVE:

Increase NYT game premium subscribers.

PROBLEM:

Americans are in the middle of a loneliness epidemic. 24% of people aged 18-29 reported feeling lonely.

TARGET:

Younger adults (18-24 who are looking for a better way to build trust and connection.

INSIGHT:

NYT games are oddly intimate, people primarily do them with their closest friends, loved ones, and trusted family.

STRATEGY:

NYT games gives you a thoughtful third space to build meaningful connections necessary for healthy relationships.

The New York Times isn’t a publication anymore.

It’s a video game company.

The New York Times isn’t a publication anymore.

It’s a video game company.

And like other video games, it has become a modern third space.

The Business Problem

While New York Times Games has millions of daily players, only a small fraction convert to paid premium subscribers.

The majority of players engage with the free daily puzzles, but feel little urgency to upgrade.

At the same time, a behavioral pattern emerged among users: many players race friends, partners, or family members to complete the daily puzzle first.

The challenge became clear: How do we turn a habit people do alone into a reason to subscribe together?

Cultural Research

Our research began with a broader cultural observation. Despite being more digitally connected than ever, people report feeling increasingly isolated.

Research from the CDC found that 24.1% of U.S. adults report lacking social and emotional support.

People are grasping at straws for genuine connections

And they’re looking in all the wrong places

People are grasping at straws for genuine connections

And they’re looking in all the wrong places

While social media promises connection, much of it lacks depth. What people increasingly crave are genuine interactions rooted in shared curiosity and conversation.

Audience Research

Using MRI-Simmons data, we focused on 18–24-year-old players, who show strong engagement with both puzzles and digital games.

Young singles index 147 above average in the dataset

Puzzle and game engagement indexes 154

Playing video games 2+ times per week indexes 153

Strong sensitivity to brand and social influence factors (123–159 range)

Studies from Harvard and the NIH show that talking with friends and family is one of the most effective ways to combat loneliness.

But the most meaningful conversations often begin with something intellectual to engage with together with a question, a challenge, or a puzzle.

This is exactly what the New York Times Games does best.

Insight

NYT Games are oddly intimate.

Just as other video games, The New York Times Games has accidentally become a modern third space.

Players don’t just solve puzzles.

They text their partner their Wordle score.
They compete with their parents over the crossword.
They debate clues with friends.

The games have become a daily ritual that sustains relationships through intellectual play.

Strategy

NYT Gamers Meet Their Match.

Instead of positioning the product as a solo brain workout, we reframed it as something far more valuable:

A shared ritual that strengthens relationships.

The strategy focused on encouraging people to experience the games together, transforming an individual habit into a shared subscription behavior.

If people already race their loved ones to play the game first, the next step is obvious:

Give them a way to play—and subscribe—together.