Waffle: How a Small Daily Word Game Studio Found a Big Audience

Even years after the Wordle craze, daily word games continue to attract millions of loyal players—and Waffle is one of the standout success stories. Developed initially over two weekends in early 2022 by James Robinson as a side project, Waffle has grown into a full studio with around 10 employees working on it and related word puzzle titles.

Origins and Organic Growth

James Robinson, a software developer with a background in telecoms, CRM, and retail software, launched Waffle by sharing it on Reddit. The game quickly gained traction through word-of-mouth and community engagement rather than paid user acquisition (UA) campaigns. Early press coverage by outlets such as PC Gamer, CNET, and Lifehacker further boosted its daily active users (DAU).

• Launched: February 2022
• Initial promotion: Reddit and Twitter community posts
• Early coverage: PC Gamer, CNET, Lifehacker

Key Metrics and Monetization

Waffle rapidly grew to around 400,000 daily active users, now maintaining approximately 475,000 DAU. Monetization comes exclusively through ads, which Robinson initially avoided but embraced after declining acquisition offers in 2022. The advertising revenue enabled Waffle Studio to expand and pursue additional projects.

• Current DAU: ~475,000
• Monetization: Advertisements only
• Related titles: OneWordSearch (~44k players), Stackdown (beta)

SEO and Discoverability Success

Despite retrying paid UA campaigns on platforms like TikTok, Meta, and Google Ads, none matched the organic growth driven by early PR and algorithmic boosts. The game’s browser accessibility helped its search rankings, making it the top Google result globally for “Waffle” and achieving high visibility for related keywords like “word game” and “daily puzzle.”

Industry Implications

Waffle joins other indie word games such as Funcraft, Studio Folly, and Minute Cryptic, demonstrating that small teams can still thrive in the mobile puzzle game space without massive UA budgets or large development teams. This success story underscores the enduring appeal of high-quality daily word games and the power of organic discovery.

Sources:

• Mobilegamer.biz, "Daily word game studio Waffle is the latest small dev to find a big audience," Neil Long, May 29, 2025
• Press coverage from PC Gamer, CNET, Lifehacker
• Developer insights from James Robinson interview

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