I enjoy playing Wordle, though I’m not very skilled at it. I wasn’t excited when The New York Times took over the game.
However, I understood why they wanted it and why the creator chose to step away from its sudden popularity. So, I sighed and prepared to continue playing on the new website.
When the switch happened, I clicked on the usual powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle link.
The address bar is now shows www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html. I shrugged and got ready for my daily word challenge.
Then—nothing.
The screen was blank—no error message, no internet issue warning—just an empty page.
Annoyed, I did not want to waste time, so I closed the tab and tried again. It still didn’t work.
Was Wordle down? No. I could open it on my Pixel 6, an incognito browser, and Safari.
No one else at The Verge had issues, either. I assumed it was a glitch and played on my phone.
For the next few days, the problem persisted. It felt like fate—or maybe The Verge’s IT team—was stopping me from playing at work.
But my stats, as unimpressive as they were, were saved on this computer. I felt frustrated.
Finally, I decided to search for answers. After some digging, I found the solution—on Reddit.
It wasn’t just me. Others also couldn’t access their morning Wordle game. The reason?
They subscribed to The New York Times.
Some users had trouble with Wordle because of cookies saved by the Times in their browsers.
The issue affected Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. The solution was to remove all cookies from the Times.
If you’re facing the same issue, here’s how to remove them in Chrome. (For other browsers, a quick search should help.)
- Click the three dots in the upper-right corner.
- Go to Settings > Security and Privacy > Cookies and other site data > See all cookies and site data.
- Use the search field in the upper right and type “nytimes.”
- Click “Remove All Shown”.
That’s it. After doing this, I visited the PowerLanguage URL, clicked it, and landed on the Wordle page (now with the NY Times address), along with my stats.
Now, I can start my mornings again with coffee, toast, and Wordle—though I haven’t solved it in under four tries for a week…
Fix the Blank Screen Issue on Wordle
If you’re seeing a blank page when visiting powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle or nytimes.com/games/wordle, you might be running into a cookie conflict caused by a New York Times subscription.
Step 1: Open Chrome Settings
Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of your Chrome browser, then go to Settings.
Step 2: Navigate to Cookies Section
In the Settings menu, select Privacy and security, then click Cookies and other site data.
Step 3: Search for NYTimes Cookies
Click on See all site data and permissions, then use the search box in the top right to type: nytimes.
Step 4: Remove the Cookies
Click Remove All Shown to delete all cookies related to the New York Times. Confirm if prompted.
This will not log you out of every account, just NYT-specific sessions.
Step 5: Reload Wordle
Now return to powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle or go directly to nytimes.com/games/wordle. It should load correctly and your stats should reappear.
