We all know about Wordle. The game is known all over the globe for its simple design yet complex gameplay. In case you didn’t know, Wordle is a single-player strategy game, where one must guess a 5 letter word in six turns. It was created by Josh Wardle for his Partner, Palak Shah. It was later moved to the New York Times website. The gameplay is simple. You guess a word, and colors will be assigned to letters in the word.   If a letter in your world is golden, it is in the word, but not in the right spot. If it is grey, it is not in the word. If it is green, the letter is in the right spot. This simple game has become something of an internet sensation. But why is it so popular?

Rise and Fame

The game experienced popularity shortly after being released. However, the turning point came when Josh Wardle (the developer of the game) created a feature that allowed you to share the results of your game through an emoji. This led to the game becoming an internet phenomenon. Before long, people were sharing wordle results and playing wordle whenever they could. On January 2, 2022, over 300,00 people played Wordle. In comparison, only ninety people played on November 1, 2021 ( a month after the game was released). Many have also attributed the success of Wordle to the dailiness of the game. People feel accomplished when finishing the game, releasing dopamine. The happiness caused by a player’s success at the game causes them to return the next day. Many also associate its popularity with its appeal to a wide range of audiences. Anyone with a basic vocabulary can play the game with ease. This means that many people can play this game.

The emoji feature (shown above) made the game go viral

New York Times acquisition

Towards the end of January 2022, Josh Wardle sold the game to the New York Times. The game moved from Wardle’s site (which was called powerlanguage) to the New York Times website. Due to Wardle’s request, the game remains free to play. The acquisition by the New York Times has led to an increase in popularity, with millions playing the game daily.

A picture of March 30th’s wordle