Have you ever logged on to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, only later to see a bunch of boxes stacked five by six and colored gray, yellow, or green? It’s because a new trending game called Wordle has been challenging netizens across the globe.
Wordle is an online daily word game that people can play for free. A new word is available every 24 hours, so if you fail to guess today’s word, you’ll have to wait for tomorrow to get another chance at it. It has been around for months, but people can’t seem to get enough of it.
The rules are simple enough. All you have to do is guess the five-letter word of the day in six tries. If you correctly guessed the letter in its place among the five boxes, the box will turn green. But if the correct letter is in the wrong box, it will turn yellow. Guessing wrongly, on the other hand, turns the box grey.
You can use these hints to guess the right word in six attempts. It sounds simple enough, but hundreds of thousands got hooked on Wordle. According to The Guardian, more than two million people play it daily.
Since there are countless possibilities for what the word of the day is, players have their way of finding the correct letters in the first few tries.
For instance, their first word contains two or more vowels to get a better idea of the word of the day.
Regardless of whether players have a strategy or tackle the world problem head-on, Wordle continues to exercise everyone’s vocabulary by determining just how much we know about the English language.
Wordle is the brainchild of software engineer Josh Wardle, hence the name. He created the game for his partner, a fan of word games. And to make the game experience more enticing, Wardle promises that his creation won’t be laden with pesky ads that pop out at random times.
Despite the simple gameplay, players from various parts of the world only recognized the game after adding a share feature. And since players are guessing the same word for each day, Twitter user Elizabeth S (@irihapeta) designed a spoiler-free emoji grid that allows players to share their results with others on Twitter or Facebook.
However, users can still opt to just share the word with their family and friends, but where’s the fun in that?
As Wordle continues to gain popularity among gamers and word puzzle lovers, other developers are trying to replicate it. Some versions are even charging fees to download and play the game. Remember, Wordle is free-to-play and is limited to browsers, so don’t try finding the game on the AppStore or PlayStore as you might run into a replica instead.
The game’s success continues to astound Wardle as it grows to levels beyond his imagination. But with the demand among players and him being only one person, Wardle sold the game to The New York Times by the end of January, making it a part of the media outlet’s subscription puzzle service.
Photo from The Guardian
Wardle, in the meantime, promises that the game will remain free-to-play and preserve users’ progress.
Next time you log on to our social media sites, give Wordle a go and see if you can guess the five-letter word of the day in just six tries.
