#7 - wordle is everywhere. why?
the daily word-guessing game going viral on twitter, explained
(It’s basically a fad to make an article about Wordle, so might as well jump the bandwagon!)
Note: If it’s not January 30th in your timezone yet, this article may reveal today’s Wordle results.
Wordle, the website-based word-guessing game you’ve either never heard of or have seen all over social media, is deceptively simple. On Twitter, it trends nearly every day, often with a hashtag like #wordle224 where the number indicates how many days it’s been since Wordle’s release (not to much fanfare - the game was intended to be a little daily activity for the creator’s partner.)
You have to guess a five-letter word in six tries or less. The game gives you hints after every guess - a letter highlighted in green is correct and belongs in its spot; a letter highlighted yellow belongs somewhere else in the word; and a letter not highlighted is not in the word.
Here’s an example of what guessing a word looks like - you start with any allowed five-letter word and use the hints given to narrow down your choices until you get the word right - or run out of tries.
But how and why did Wordle get popular out of practically nowhere? Our unprecedented times and factors like simplicity, reminiscence to other games, and its sharing feature have launched this game into one of the biggest social media trends recently.
The game looks simple and is simple - guess a word. But the way it works keeps you on your feet - you have to think about possible ways the words you have can fit into a word, and sometimes you’ll just have to guess random strings of letters and hope it’s a valid word.
And actually, you may feel like you’ve played similar games before - games like Mastermind (guessing the color and order of four pegs in limited guesses), Jotto (you and your opponent attempt to guess each other’s five-letter word), and the game show Lingo (nearly identical to Wordle), along with many other guessing games can make you feel right at home with Wordle.
A factor that limits some apps from being popular is their replayability - Wordle only has one guess per day - everyone has to guess the same word. This keeps the anticipation building for every day at midnight, where the site refreshes and you can guess a new word.
If Wordle were designed to keep you playing repeatedly in one sitting by refreshing right after you get a word correct, a player would burn out far quicker. Plus, if people were guessing each different words every day, that camaraderie you feel with strangers wouldn’t be as strong because you both couldn’t emphasize on how hard or weird the word may have been.
Also, the game’s accessibility from a website that any electronic device with internet or cellular data can access helped make it popular. Though app formats can integrate better with a device, the complications of needing apps for different platforms, waiting for approval, etc. just overcomplicates the process.
Though there are some kinks Wordle needs to fix - like why can’t I see the share button?
Putting aside my pain stemming from being unable to share my results to the world easily without spoiling random strangers, the share function is actually amazing. It shows you the colors of the blocks without revealing the actual letters. Josh Wardle (note the last name!) added this feature in after seeing a New Zealand player share their results using the format online.
Here’s an example of what the above photo would look like when you share it:
Wordle 224 3/6
⬛️🟨🟨⬛️🟨
🟩🟨🟨🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Boom - now you can paste your results and share it to millions of people around the world who may or may not be aware of Wordle.
Unfortunately, this trend likely won’t bask too long in its immense popularity. Things are destined to come and go, and eventually we’ll get bored of the five-letter guessing game and move on to something else.
But right now, maybe we should cherish the time we have with this daily game. It’s a source of comfort and reassurance in an ever-changing world.
If you’d like to play Wordle, just click the button below. Bookmark the tab if you’d like, even!