Wordle. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of it. You may have seen someone on twitter boasting about their score, or heard an obnoxious co-worker spoiling the puzzle for everyone else in the office, or seen a late night comedian like Jimmy Fallon try to play Wordle on TV.
“I heard about it from my brothers,” explained Middle College High School student Kiara Flores. “We decided to make it a competition between us. We play every day and send screenshots to each other to see who got it faster or in the least amount of tries.”
So what exactly is a Wordle? That’s the game! Figuring out what the word is! The game is simple: players are given six chances to guess the secret five letter word, with the goal being to guess the word in the least amount of tries and time spent.
After entering any valid five letter word, the letters change to give you hints to what the secret word is. A letter turns gray if it’s not in the word, yellow if the letter is in the word, but in the wrong spot, and green if the letter is in the word in the correct spot. These clues are used to figure out the answer before the player runs out of tries. It’s a kind of mashup between crosswords and hangman.
Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn created the aptly named game as a gift for his partner, who is a self proclaimed lover of word games. The game was made public in Oct. 2021, and didn’t start off with a huge bang. By Nov. 1, only 90 people had played the game. As of the beginning of February, the game is played by millions every day. A new Wordle releases every day at 12 a.m. People rush to solve the Wordle before other people can spoil it for them — everyone has the same word.
How to account for Wordle’s rise to stardom?
According to Wardle, one factor of this is the way Wordle is structured. There’s only one puzzle a day because the sense of scarcity leaves people wanting more.
“It’s simple, but it has a good amount of challenge,” said student Andrew Lewis on what he likes about the game. “There’s only six tries. I actually love that it’s only once per day. There have been times when you kinda get sucked in too much with games, and you lose the day. It’s nice to be able to wake up, play a quick game, then go on and do my thing.”
On Jan. 31, it was announced that Wordle was purchased by the New York Times for a price in the low-seven figures.
Wordle has also become a big hit with influencers. “A friend introduced me to it,” Middle College High School student Ashley Lo commented about how they found out about the game. “I didn’t play it until I saw a lot of content creators on social media posting their scores.”
After the New York Times’ acquisition of Wordle, many have the question: will Wordle remain free? The New York Times says yes, but in an interview with CNN, General Manager of Games at the New York Times, Jonathan Knight, could not make a promise that it would always be free.
“Great they bought it from this guy, but asking people to pay for it? That’s probably where they’ll lose people,” said Lewis.
Would people still play Wordle if they had to pay for it? It seems unlikely.
“There are knock off versions of it,” said Flores. It’s true. The app store has been flooded recently with slightly dubious Wordle knockoffs. The Apple app store specifically has been taking action against said copycats, because they go against what Wardle originally wanted for the game.
Wordle was just transferred from Wardle’s website to the New York Times’s website. Only time will tell if Wordle will continue being an everyday staple for excitement seeking Americans, or fizzle away to become another remnant of COVID boredom.
The Times’ stewardship of Wordle didn’t have the smoothest start. For approximately six hours on the morning of Feb. 15, there were two rival puzzles dividing the internet.
The Word on Wordle
One of the most daunting tasks about Wordle is picking a starting word. Delta students offer their thoughts on opening gambits.
“I use ‘apple’. I don’t know why, it’s just my favorite fruit, and it’s just the first word that comes to my mind.”
Ashley Lo
“Not always, but mostly ‘cream’. It has ‘ea’, good vowels.”
Andrew Lewis
“Not necessarily. Just whatever five letter word pops into my head”
Kiara Flores