Last year, Spotify, the world’s leading digital music streaming service, acquired Wordle-like music guessing game, Heardle. Now, just one year later, Spotify is abruptly shutting down Heardle—first reported by Bloomberg on May 18, 2020.
Heardle, which was launched in 2018, allowed users to guess songs based on snippets of classic songs provided by the game. The game presented users with jumbled letters that represented a song’s title and challenged them to guess the song. It also offered other games such as recognizing timed lyrics and singing along with popular hits.
The app was originally created by startup Pixonic and was sold to Spotify in July 2019 for an undisclosed sum. At the time, the company seemed committed to growing Heardle and made plans to expand its game lineup. However, today, Spotify is pivoting away from the music guessing game to focus its energy on developing new features for its flagship service.
Spotify sources report that the decision to pull the plug was made due to the app’s low user engagement. The app reportedly had fewer than 100,000 active users, which is far less than what the company had hoped for. Furthermore, Spotify has seen lackluster performance in the gaming industry overall; in 2017, the company shut down its first attempt at a gaming app, Spotify Runner.
In the near future, users of Heardle will no longer be able to access the app. The good news for Heardle fans is that the developers at Pixonic are currently searching for a new home for the game. Any new owner would have to make changes to the game in order to remain compliant with the music industry.
It remains to be seen how Spotify will move forward from this setback. Most likely, the company will continue to focus on adding new features and content to its core platform. That being said, this is not the first time Spotify has invested in gaming—perhaps they will try their hand at developing new gaming experiences in the future.
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