FAQ | What the Heck Is ‘Wordle’ and Why Is Everyone So Obsessed with It?
Credit: Sergio Velasquez / iDrop NewsToggle Dark Mode
It’s not very common for a silly new video game to take the world by storm. Sure, there have been huge mobile games like Candy Crush or even the long-forgotten Flappy Bird, but the new game in town is becoming more popular in even less time.
We’re talking about Wordle, a game that you’ve probably heard of once, even if you didn’t know what the heck people were talking about.
No matter their age or personal interests, everyone is playing Wordle online. The craziest part is that Wordle isn’t even a mobile app, unlike the games we mentioned before. Instead, it’s getting hundreds of thousands of players the old-fashioned way: using a simple website.
If you still aren’t sure what the fuss is all about, here’s everything you need to know about Wordle.
Help! I Don’t Know What Wordle Is
Don’t worry. We’ve all been in the same boat. Wordle has been called many names, including a love story—which is kind of true—but the reality is that it’s a web-based word game.
- Wordle is a word game in which you try to guess the word of the day.
- You’ll have up to six tries to find what the word is.
- You can enter words, and the website will help you by highlighting the letters in different colors to let you know you’re on the right path.
- Each word is changed every 24 hours, so you need to find out which word it is before the word is changed.
- If you guess the word correctly, you win and you’ll get points for your score.
The goal is to reach your own personal highest score and guess as many daily words as possible.
Got It! But Why Did You Say It Was a Love Letter?
Well, because it technically is. As reported by the New York Times—which we’ll talk about later—Wordle was created by a guy named Josh Wardle, a software engineer from Brooklyn. He first created this game because his partner loves word games. As a way for both of them to play, Wardle created Wordle (you see what he did there?).
After they, and their family, played for months, Wardle decided to release the game to the world. In just a little over two months, the Wordle website had over 300,000 people playing. The rest, as they say, is history. Well, kind of.
Why Is Everyone So Addicted to Wordle?
If you’re asking this, you clearly haven’t played it yourself.
The truth is, Wordle is becoming one of the most popular online games in the world. And even though there isn’t an appropriate age to play the game, a survey from Morning Consult says that millennials are the ones that are playing Wordle the most. On average, one in five millennials said they’re playing this game.
And why is it so attractive? Well, maybe because it’s pretty simple to use. When you want to play Wordle, you just need to go to the website and play Wordle. You don’t have to create an account, there aren’t any ads messing with your experience, and there aren’t any hidden cookies trying to get a hold of your information. It’s just a game.
Wardle knows this. During an interview, he mentioned that Wordle is a thing online that’s just for fun and isn’t trying to do anything shady with your data or eyeballs.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t Wardle’s first rodeo when it comes to online trends. Wardle, a former engineer for Reddit, first created two other websites called The Button and Place, both of which became popular during their own time. So he probably already knows a thing or two about creating an addictive website.
I’m Sold! How Can I Play Wordle?
For now, Wordle is free to play for everyone. All you need to do is go to the Wordle website, read the instructions and start playing.
Each day, a new word will appear, and you’ll have six guesses to find which word it is. You can enter random words with the website keyboard and tap on or press enter.
The game will show your letters in three different colors.
- If they’re gray, that means the letters aren’t part of the word of the day.
- If they’re yellow, that means the letter is part of the word, but it’s in the wrong order.
- And if it’s green, then your letter is correct and is in the right order.
If you’re good with words, there’s even a Hard Mode available to take your game to the next level – and if you’re colorblind, there’s also a Color Blind Mode to help you out.
If you want to keep your streaks, it’s recommended that you play on your phone and leave the tab open.
Why Is Wordle Free to Play “For Now?”
Well, because what first started as a love story quickly became a business, which happens with many trendy online things.
After Wordle’s huge success, The New York Times decided to buy the game to add it to the library of its own games. We don’t know the exact amount The New York Times paid, but it’s been confirmed that it was “on the low seven figures.”
Wardle considered this the right choice since The New York Times was what helped the game become what it is today.
And while the creator says that Wordle will be free to play for everyone after it moves to The New York Times‘ site, the paper mentioned in a statement that Wordle would initially remain free to new and existing players.
So we aren’t sure if they’ll change the game so that you’ll need a subscription to play. It seems like that won’t happen, at least for now.
It’s worth noting that The New York Times has both free and paid games that you can only access with a subscription. Even though we don’t know if the company plans to keep the game free to play or not, you can still play the game for free from Wardle’s website for the time being.
