In the past month Wordle’s popularity has sky-rocketed. Everyone seems to be playing it. Everyone. But where did Wordle come from? This massively popular word guessing game seems to have gathered a cult following almost overnight.
Wordle is pretty basic as games go. You have 6 chances to guess a word. When you guess a word blocks around the correct letters will turn yellow or green depending on whether the letter is in the right place. The game can only be played once a day.
Wordle was created by software engineer, Josh Wardle for his partner as something fun to do during quarantine. But as the game quickly because an obsession amongst his family and friends Josh decided to share the game online in October of 2021. By January it had already gather a massive following and now has millions of players returning everyday.
One of the common reasons cited for Wordle’s success is that it doesn’t demand your attention like other games. The rarity of finding a source of entertainment that’s not constantly bombarding you with notifications or trying to sell you something through obnoxious pop-ups has certainly contributed to its popularity. Nowadays it feels like our online spaces are invaded with bright, flashing images screaming for our attention. Ads, images, videos, pop-ups strain our eyes as we try our best to dodge past them just to the content we came for.
Wordle’s simplistic design is relaxing, easy. The tiny text that appears at the end of a match is like the voice of a friend. “Phew,” it breathes a sigh of relief along with us when we just manage to guess on the last try. There is something so novel about it, so down-to-earth. One of the most amazing things about wordle is its popularity across generations. It’s become a way of greeting to say, “did you do the wordle for today?”. Ask any college student and chances are they’ve heard of the game at the very least. But older people have a love for the game as well and some families have even made group chats to share their progress and tips with each other.
In December Josh Wardle added the ability to share your daily wordle success spoiler-free with a grid showing only the colours of the squares with no letters on them. Guessing the word has become just as much about the process as the result. The fascination with wordle has birthed a sort of cult of competitive players. Sharing strategies and starting words has become popular everywhere from reddit to major publications.
At the end of January, Josh Wardle announced that Wordle had been bought by The New York Times Games. The amount paid for the word game has not been disclosed but the general speculation suggests that Josh Wardle is now a millionaire.
There’s no denying that Wordle has certainly carved out a space in our lives and whether you’re a seasoned player with a no-fail starting word, or a beginner with a two day streak, you have to agree that Josh Wardle has created something that will continue to entertain us for years to come… or at least until we mess up our streak.
