From 90 players in November, to 300,000 players in January, to over 2 million players today, ‘Wordle’ is currently one of the fastest growing and most popular games to play. The game involves users having to guess the daily word within six tries and getting clues based on their previous guesses. 

Independence High School (IHS) sophomore Akhilesh Singu talks about what he finds fun about ‘Wordle’.

“Wordle is an amazing game that catches my attention quickly,” he said. “It makes me think a lot as I have to use the clues to get the words correctly.”

Wordle was created by Josh Wardle, a British software engineer. He created a prototype of the game back in 2013, but it had some major differences from the game today. During the pandemic, he fixed the game so that he could play it along with his girlfriend. 

After playing for months, he decided to introduce it to the rest of the world and released it in October 2021. He called it ‘Wordle’, a play on his own last name. In late January, Wardle sold the game to New York Times for a low seven figure price, saying handling everything had become overwhelming for him. 

But what makes ‘Wordle’ so addicting? The most unique aspects of the game are that everyone has the same word and that there’s only one word per day. Because everyone in the world has to figure out the same word, sharing results over social media has become extremely common. People like to compete over how many attempts it took for​​ them to get the Wordle, or share wh​​at words they used to get there. 

Watch as Jimmy Fallon plays ‘Wordle’ with his audience:

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Additionally, the fact that there is only one word to play makes the stakes much higher. If there were unlimited words per day,​ the game would get boring fast. And if there were multiple words per day, people wouldn’t give as much importance to finding out the word, knowing that there are more to come. 

Singu also elaborates on the role his friends play and another reason why he plays ‘Wordle’ everyday. 

“Wordle is also a fun game to compete with your friends,” he said. “I am motivated everyday to guess the word faster than my friends, in the least amount of guesses possible. It’s also a great game to get your brain thinking and so a great way to start off the day. I recommend this game to everyone.”