> Games are a top-three category for engaged minutes at The New Yorker, averaging 25 minutes per user on crossword pages. Over half of players arrive directly, making the section unusually insulated from algorithm shifts

> Puzzles had been free since 2018. Rather than wall them outright, the team built a windowed hardgate: the last seven days free, everything older behind the paywall

> The window is a dial rather than a decision. It can tighten to three days or open to fourteen, and players still get five crosswords a week, so the paywall arrived without a shock

> Archive players self-select. Anyone hunting a puzzle from more than a week ago is already showing higher propensity to subscribe, which is why that is where the wall sits

> Games have their own paywall rules, separate from articles. People behave differently playing than reading, and it lets the team test games paywall copy without disturbing the site meter