The word-guessing flash game Wordle has taken on a life of its own since it started booming in November and December of 2021, and now millions of people around the world are enjoying a simple but frustrating everyday word puzzle game created by American software engineer as a way to pass the time during a pandemic.
Wordle is a new free-to-play browser game that was created last year as a gift for his wife by a Brooklyn-based software programmer named Josh Wardle. The game quickly became a favourite among his extended family. World's obsession quickly spread over the internet, with 90 participants in November and around 300,000 in January.
But, first and foremost, how do you play the game?
Wordle is an online word game that looks a lot like classic code-breaking, colour-coded board games, but it's even easier to play. Every day, a new, mysterious five-letter word must be guessed, which must be done by typing five-letter words into Wordle's 30 tile grid. Any tiles containing the proper letter will become yellow, green, or grey on the initial attempt, motivating users to make further guesses with words including more of the correct or partial letters discovered in the day's 'wordle.'
(If it turns green, that letter is in the daily word and you've placed it in the right spot, if it turns yellow, the letter is in the word but you have it in the wrong position, if the box turns grey, it means the letter isn't in the word at all.)
Wordle's rules are pretty simple, despite the fact that the game is tougher than it appears at first. At the 'Wordle' of the day, guesses must be five letters long, and only six attempts are allowed.
Many people have liked the basic game that has only one, the five-letter answer for everyone and can only be played once a day – rather than being swallowed instantly or all at once – with hundreds of thousands of players logging on to Wardle's site every day to guess each new 'wordle.' However, the game's current social media buzz has a lot to do with it, with many users choosing to post their daily Wordle results on sites like Instagram and mainly on Twitter, as well as with friends. Once you've guessed the word of the day correctly or incorrectly, Wordle's simple 'share' button copies the results to the clipboard, ready to be copied and pasted into tweets, blogs, and texts.