The OG Wordle will be free forever, even if the internet dies

The New York Times' acquisition of Wordle has a lot folks worried that the popular word game won't be free-to-play for long, but there's a surprisingly simple way to ensure you can keep playing it for years without ever spending a dime.

As tech wizard Aaron Rieke broke down on Twitter (thanks, The Verge), all you have to do is right-click and save the Wordle webpage to your desktop and you've basically got yourself a free, offline version of the game to keep and play for years. Go ahead and give it a try.

It's possible because Wordle is an incredibly simple browser game without any of the protections most games have to keep people from hacking them (why would you hack Wordle?) There are already thousands of daily words saved in the code and programmed to a daily cycle, meaning you wouldn't even need to be connected to the internet to get a new word every day. "You could save copy of the website right now, *unplug your computer from the internet,* and play Wordle every day for years," Rieke explained.

There's nothing stopping The New York Times from developing its own in-house Wordle and locking it behind a paywall - though the publication said the game will be free "initially" - but as long as you have the OG Wordle saved to your desktop you'll be able to keep on guessing words for the foreseeable future, even if it's a dark terrible future where the internet doesn't exist.

For what to play on your phone, check out our guide to the best iPhone games available now.