What is Wordle? Here’s why people are so obsessed with this viral daily game
If you’re scrolling through social media only to be bombarded with green and yellow squares, don’t be alarmed — it’s just Wordle. We’ve got you covered with all the information you need to know about the viral game taking social media by storm.
What is Wordle?
Wordle is a deceptively simple daily word game where users can guess a random five-letter word of the day. Players get six chances to discover the correct word.
It was actually created by Josh Wardle, a New York software engineer, because his partner loved word games, the New York Times reported.
The two played it for a while before Wardle decided to unleash it on the rest of the world in October. On Nov. 1, the game had 90 players. Two months later, 300,000 people were playing it, the Times reported.
The Wordle craze continues in 2022, with people sharing their results on social media and to friends thanks to an update that shares spoiler-free square emojis.
How do you play it?
Below are mild spoilers via screenshot for the Jan. 6 Wordle. The final answer is not revealed.
The game itself is available for free on any browser, mobile or desktop.
Users get six tries to guess the word of the day. The word is the same for everyone who plays the game that day.
If a word guessed by the user has a letter that is in the word of the day, but not in the right order, the letter box turns yellow.
If any letters are incorrect and not included in the final word at all, the box turns gray.
But if any of the letters guessed are in the word and are in the right position, the box turns green.
Below is a screenshot of the Jan. 6 puzzle in mid-play.
Once the user guesses the correct word and solves the puzzle, they are done for the day.
“It’s something that encourages you to spend three minutes a day,” Wardle told the Times. “And that’s it. Like, it doesn’t want any more of your time than that.”
Love for the game
Since the game skyrocketed in popularity, players have been singing Wardle’s praises online.
“The real web is (Wardle) making a game for someone he loves, not smothering it in surveillance-based ads or creepy growth hacks, and limiting it so it doesn’t even try to steal more than a few minutes of your time. Wordle deserves all its success,” one user wrote on Twitter.
Even celebrities are getting in on the simple word play fun.
“Who else is playing #Wordle?” late-night host Jimmy Fallon asked on Twitter while showing off his results from the day. “#Addicted.”
Starling Bank even made their own (fake) Wordle to advertise their business.
But there is one major rule among players: Don’t spoil the day’s word.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 12:36 PM with the headline "What is Wordle? Here’s why people are so obsessed with this viral daily game."
