Games, prediction markets and betting: how media companies use gaming mechanics to retain audiences
As external traffic sources decline, publishers are increasingly turning to interactive formats. Gaming mechanics have become an important tool for retaining audiences within subscription platforms. For example, The New York Times has transformed simple puzzles into a multi-million-dollar subscription business; by the end of 2023, NYT Games had amassed over 2 million subscribers.
Since 2020, The Guardian has monetised its games section through a separate paid app, Guardian Puzzles; by 2025, it had exceeded 1.7 million users. The Washington Post is actively expanding its games portfolio; according to the publication, reader engagement with gaming content increased by 70 per cent between 2022 and 2023. Consequently, more newsrooms are treating games as a strategic priority rather than a side product.
Why games have become central to subscription strategy
According to research cited by Knight, the combination of games and news is one of the strongest drivers of subscriber retention at The New York Times. The company has demonstrated that even simple formats such as the Mini Crossword can turn passive readers into daily app users. Games already drive significant engagement across the media group’s entire product lineup.
Mini Crossword, Connections and Spelling Bee create a daily habit. Users return to the app not just for information, but also for the ritual itself. The British newspaper The Telegraph reports a similar pattern. After launching a section dedicated to puzzles and quizzes, the newspaper found that users of gaming formats opened the app, on average, two more days per week than those who only read the news. This is especially important as referral traffic becomes less predictable and competition for audience attention intensifies.
The Guardian is a good example of how gaming mechanics can be integrated into an existing media structure. In February 2020, it launched Guardian Puzzles, a paid app with 15 new crosswords per week, daily Sudoku and an archive of over 15,000 puzzles. In May 2025, the app was redesigned to introduce a dedicated Puzzles Hub, and in October 2025, the company expanded to include games that didn’t involve words or numbers. Readers were introduced to On the Ball, a football game, and Film Reveal, a puzzle with a cinema theme. More than 1.7 million people now use Guardian Puzzles.
Live events as proof of audience loyalty
A clear demonstration of audience interest came with the first live NYT Games event, marking the 10th anniversary of the Mini Crossword. The event took place at Rocco’s Sports & Recreation in Greenwich Village and drew hundreds of attendees. Despite no monetisation and free admission, it generated a strong response: more than 17,000 users submitted their scores in advance to the Mini Crossword Hall of Fame.
This showed how deeply audiences are willing to engage with NYT Games products and interact with the brand beyond the app. Such events confirm that the gaming vertical has built a distinct and highly loyal community.
Offsetting the decline in referral traffic
More publishers are beginning to view games as a way to offset declining referral traffic. Against this backdrop, Time is working on its own range of games. In May 2026, the company launched a set of digital games on its website. These included Market Movers, a fantasy prediction market built on data from Kalshi and Polymarket, and puzzles featuring old magazine covers. Axios reports that this is happening at the same time as plans to introduce a registration paywall.
Other publishers are taking similar steps. Vulture, the entertainment site under New York Magazine and Vox Media that specialises in film, television, and pop-culture criticism, launched Cinematrix, a movie trivia game developed with Movie Grid. The game has become a notable commercial success, attracting Hulu and Focus Features as sponsors. These initiatives show that publishers are seeking new ways to keep audiences on their platforms as traditional traffic distribution channels become less effective.
Prospects for prediction markets and betting
In this context, the natural next step is to introduce betting features and prediction markets. These mechanics can do several things at once: get people to return more often, make them spend more time on the site, and create a sense of personal investment among users, which is also known as “skin in the game”.
Prediction markets hold particular potential in areas where information has high forecasting value, such as politics, economics, corporate events, and sports. Financial publisher The Motley Fool uses similar logic in its investment simulators: users who build a virtual portfolio spend three times as long on the site as those who visit only for articles. This helps convert casual attention into more deliberate content consumption.
It is important to understand the difference between simple gamified points and real prediction markets. The former is just for entertainment; the latter can generate valuable signals about audience sentiment and expectations.
Risks and limitations
However, integrating betting features carries legal and reputational risks. Regulations vary across jurisdictions; in several US states and EU countries, even simulated prediction markets involving monetary rewards can fall under gambling legislation. The case of PredictIt is instructive: the platform operated in a legal grey area and, in 2022, received an order from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to cease operations.
In March 2026, the Jordan Center for Journalism, Advocacy and Innovation warned that partnerships between news organisations and betting platforms could undermine public trust in journalism. According to The Desk, Professor Bill Cassidy of the University of Mississippi stated directly that when a media company has a financial interest in betting volume, the independence of its journalists is jeopardised.
Journalist Danny Funt drew parallels with specific media cases in an interview with Nieman Lab: ESPN’s partnership with DraftKings and the Associated Press’s deal with FanDuel were seen by parts of the industry as a “necessary evil” – a compromise made in the fight for survival.
Traditionally, news brands are sensitive to trust: if readers suspect that editorial priorities are influenced by user bets, the brand’s reputation will suffer. For this reason, many publishers are considering adopting notional wagers or points-based prediction markets modelled on fantasy sports leagues.
From entertainment to strategic tool
The New York Times’ experience demonstrates that a well-executed gaming strategy can incorporate engagement mechanics into an overarching monetisation programme. Such formats also increase average revenue per user: when readers actively use multiple products from the same publisher, churn rate decreases significantly. According to the company, subscribers who use both the news and Games sections cancel at half the rate of those who use only one section.
In Europe, Schibsted, the Scandinavian media group, is making a similar bet. The company has integrated gaming formats into subscription packages across several of its titles, resulting in a double-digit reduction in churn.
Looking ahead, prediction markets and lightweight betting mechanics are likely to become part of the standard toolkit for major media groups. The key to success will remain striking a balance between growing engagement and preserving editorial trust – an asset that traditional media brands have built over decades.
This article was first published in Russian on 21 May 2026.
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