Exclusive: Time launches online games
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Time is introducing a suite of digital games on its website, including a fantasy prediction market and jigsaws, as it prepares to launch a registration wall, executives exclusively tell Axios.
Why it matters: Games have become a popular engagement tool for publishers, helping them drive repeat visitors and time spent as referral traffic becomes less reliable and competition for attention intensifies.
- "Time spent is the greatest indicator that what we built is successful," Time COO Mark Howard says. "Hopefully this becomes much more of that daily behavior that every media company so covets."
Driving the news: The new Time Games hub features a mix of original and classic games tied to news, culture and the publisher's archives. The games are free to play on desktop and mobile, and updated daily.
- Market Movers tests knowledge of current events through a fantasy prediction market game powered by data from Kalshi and Polymarket. The game includes 10 rounds with a human reviewer curating prompts and verifying accuracy.
- Word games include Linked, a daily word association puzzle, and Word Flower, a petal-based word game.
- Time covers inspired playable jigsaw puzzles and What Year Was It?, a timed history quiz. It also includes classic games like Sudoku and word search.
The intrigue: Prediction markets have faced scrutiny for gamifying tragedy. Time is intentionally focusing on lighter categories like entertainment, sports and consumer topics, Howard says.
- "You don't want to get too heavy with a game," he says.
Between the lines: Time partnered with Lucky Butterfly Productions for Linked, which is proprietary, and Amuse Labs for several other games.
- Howard says partnering externally accelerated development and gave them access to established infrastructure while still allowing customization.
Follow the money: Games also create new monetization opportunities through advertising. The games hub will have display ads, and Howard says they are exploring sponsored games.
- Time is also tying commerce into the launch by allowing people to purchase physical puzzles and framed prints of select covers featured in the jigsaw game.
State of play: The New York Times has helped demonstrate the business value of games for news publishers.
- The Times said Wordle brought "an unprecedented tens of millions of new users" when it acquired the viral game in 2022. NBCUniversal this week announced plans to adapt Wordle into a TV game show.
- Other publishers have expanded gaming efforts, including Vulture with Cinematrix, its movie trivia game, and BuzzFeed.
The big picture: The games strategy is part of a broader "B2C consumer ecosystem" that includes personalization and registered user experiences, Howard says.
- Time plans to launch a registration wall next week that will allow users to follow authors and topics. Future gaming features tied to registration will include score tracking, badges and leaderboards.
- "Three years ago, we removed the paywall. That was a very deliberate plan that paid off from a strategic standpoint over the last several years," Howard says. "We think we finally have the right products to incentivize people to actually go through the [registration] process."
Go deeper: Time to remove digital paywall
