The New York Times is home to a range of popular puzzles and crosswords. These puzzles are either word-based or number-based and have an educational aspect to them. The publication also brings out new games every once in a while. In April 2023, it launched Digits, a number-based puzzle, in beta. The game is fun and intuitive and the goal is to use the given numbers and basic operations to reach a particular number. But sadly, the game is being taken down. The last date to play the game is August 7, as on August 8, it will be gone forever.
According to a report by the Verge, the publication did not get enough traction on the game as it expected, and as a result, it was forced to take the decision to shut it down. “We always approached our experiment with Digits as a limited-time beta test. During this time, we learned a lot about how players engaged with the game and we’re grateful for their feedback. Right now, we’re focusing on growing the audience and engagement of our other games and look forward to testing more games in beta soon,” NYT spokesperson Jordan Cohen told the Verge.
Digits to soon shut down
The game is simple, yet engaging. On the screen, you see six different numbers, and at the bottom, you find four basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You can select any two numbers and an operation in one step. The goal of the game is to get to the end number displayed on the top of the screen, using these numbers and operations.
It is a pretty fun game for those who love mathematical puzzles. And if you still have not heard about it, you can play this game here as NYT gets set to push the ‘kill’ switch.
If you’re wondering why the game is being taken down, the report by the Verge highlights that the game was always considered an experiment by the publication, even when it was getting engagement and audience. And a lack of a significant number of users meant it was going to be taken down.
It should be noted that NYT has the insanely popular word-based game Wordle too, which it bought in early 2022.
