Media Popularity
In 1989, Loadstar/Softdisk Publishing published DigitHunt on the Commodore
64, which was apparently the first home computer version of Sudoku. At least one
publisher still uses that title.
Yoshimitsu Kanai published his computerized puzzle generator under the name
Single Number for the Apple Macintosh [11] in 1995 in Japanese and English, and
in 1996 for the Palm (PDA) [12].
Bringing the process full-circle, Dell Magazines, which publishes the original
Number Place puzzle, now also publishes two Sudoku magazines: Original Sudoku
and Extreme Sudoku. Additionally, Kappa reprints Nikoli Sudoku in GAMES Magazine
under the name Squared Away; the New York Post, USA Today, The Boston Globe,
Washington Post, and San Francisco Chronicle now also publish the puzzle. It is
also often included in puzzle anthologies, such as The Giant 1001 Puzzle Book
(under the title Nine Numbers).
Within the context of puzzle history, parallels are often cited to Rubik's Cube,
another logic puzzle popular in the 1980s. Sudoku has been called the "Rubik's
cube of the 21st century".
In 1997, retired Hong Kong judge Wayne Gould, 59, a New Zealander, saw a
partly completed puzzle in a Japanese bookshop. Over 6 years he developed a
computer program to produce puzzles quickly. Knowing that British newspapers
have a long history of publishing crosswords and other puzzles, he promoted
Sudoku to The Times in Britain, which launched it on 12 November 2004 (calling
it Su Doku). The puzzles by Pappocom, Gould's software house, have been printed
daily in the Times ever since.
Three days later The Daily Mail began to publish the puzzle under the name "Codenumber".
The Daily Telegraph introduced its first Sudoku by its puzzle compiler Michael
Mepham on 19 January 2005 and other Telegraph Group newspapers took it up very
quickly. Nationwide News Pty Ltd began publishing the puzzle in The Daily
Telegraph of Sydney on 20 May 2005; five puzzles with solutions were printed
that day. The immense surge in popularity of Sudoku in British newspapers and
internationally has led to it being dubbed in the world media in 2005 the
"fastest growing puzzle in the world".
There is no doubt that it was not until the British Daily Telegraph introduced
the puzzle on a daily basis on 23 February 2005 with the full front-page
treatment advertising the fact, that the other UK national newspapers began to
take real interest. The Telegraph continued to splash the puzzle on its front
page, realizing that it was gaining sales simply by its presence. Until then the
Times had kept very quiet about the huge daily interest that its daily Sudoku
competition had aroused. That newspaper already had plans for taking advantage
of their market lead, and a first Sudoku book was already on the stocks before
any other national UK papers had realised just how popular Sudoku might be.
By April and May 2005 the puzzle had become popular in these publications and it
was rapidly introduced to several other national British newspapers including
The Independent, The Guardian, The Sun (where it was labelled Sun Doku), and The
Daily Mirror. As the name Sudoku became well-known in Britain, the Daily Mail
adopted it in place of its earlier name "Codenumber". Newspapers competed to
promote their Sudoku puzzles, with The Times and the Daily Mail each claiming to
have been the first to feature Sudoku.
The rapid rise of Sudoku from relative obscurity in Britain to a front-page
feature in national newspapers attracted commentary in the media (see References
below) and parody (such as when The Guardian's G2 section advertised itself as
the first newspaper supplement with a Sudoku grid on every page [13]). Sudoku
became particularly prominent in newspapers soon after the 2005 general election
leading some commentators to suggest that it was filling the gaps previously
occupied by election coverage. A simpler explanation is that the puzzle attracts
and retains readers—Sudoku players report an increasing sense of satisfaction as
a puzzle approaches completion. Recognizing the different psychological appeals
of easy and difficult puzzles The Times introduced both side by side on 20 June
2005. From July 2005 Channel 4 included a daily Sudoku game in their Teletext
service (at page 391). On 2 August 2005 the BBC's programme guide Radio Times
started to feature a weekly Super Sudoku.
The world's first live TV Sudoku show, 1 July 2005, Sky One.As a one-off, the
world's first live TV Sudoku show, Sudoku Live, was broadcast on 1 July 2005 on
Sky One. It was presented by Carol Vorderman. Nine teams of nine players (with
one celebrity in each team) representing geographical regions competed to solve
a puzzle. Each player had a hand-held device for entering numbers corresponding
to answers for four cells. Conferring was permitted although the lack of
acquaintance of the players with each other inhibited an analytical discussion.
The audience at home was in a separate interactive competition. A Sky One
publicity stunt to promote the programme with the world's largest Sudoku puzzle
went awry when the 275 foot (84 m) square puzzle was found to have 1,905 correct
solutions. The puzzle was carved into a hillside in Chipping Sodbury, near
Bristol, England, in view of the M4 motorway. The stunt was cleverly timed to
coincide with a major road expansion, where an imposed 40 mph speed restriction
allowed drivers to safely view the puzzle whilst driving.
CBS has run several stories concerning Sudoku, including on the Early Show in
Summer 2005, and on the CBS Evening News that autumn, on October 26.
