The Wordle Appeal:
We are all five-letter word experts now, aren’t we? We can slide words like rebus, knoll, or shard in everyday conversations and sneer at those who don’t get what the hype is about. Apart from the upgraded lexicon, what is the appeal of the game? Why has there been a sudden meteoric rise in the popularity of the game? Why did it go viral?
The story of Wordle
Before the uninitiated folks say “What’s Wordle?”, let me tell you a little bit about the game. Wordle was created by a software engineer, Josh Wardle(hence Wordle). It started out as a project for his partner who enjoyed puzzles. He shared it with his close family and friends, and soon enough they were hooked. Noticing the popularity of the game among his friends, Josh decided to publish the game to the world in October 2021.
Only 90 people played Wordle on November 1st. This isn’t a bad number, but it doesn’t denote what was about to happen to Josh’s game. In just two months, 300,000 people were playing Wordle every day. A survey showed that nearly 14% of the adults in America were playing Wordle every day in January. That number might be anywhere upwards of half a million today, if not more. There are over 4 million #wordle tweets and the popularity continues to grow.
What is Wordle?
Wordle is a simple word puzzle game. You get a new puzzle every day and there are 6 chances to guess the 5 letter word of the day.
You start off by guessing the first word at random. You get clues after your guess in the form of colors. If a letter is green, then the letter exists in the puzzle word, and it exists in the same position as it does in your guess word. If a letter is yellow, you’ve got the letter right but the position wrong. If a letter is black, then it doesn’t exist in the 5 letter puzzle word.
The concept is pretty simple, really. But it’s fun. You start eliminating the letter and guess five-letter words with the remaining letters, anchoring them around the green and yellow tiles that you know exist in the puzzle word. You get six tries to get it right.
Why is Wordle so popular?
What’s so fascinating about Wordle that everyone seems to be hooked on it? Well, for one, the appeal is similar to the most popular puzzle in the world. The Crossword puzzle. Each morning, many people eagerly wait for the morning newspaper to get on with their brain workouts. The first-ever Crossword puzzle appeared in 1913 and it is still one of the most popular puzzles today. One of the reasons for its popularity is that everyone was solving the same puzzle for the day. It made it a social event, even though people weren’t interacting socially.
Wordle also shares some of these features. The reason for its popularity is this: It is free, meaningful, and challenging in just the right doses.
Social Media is the driving force behind Wordle’s success. Nearly half of its users claim to have heard about the game on Social Media. Being able to share the daily puzzle socially without revealing the answer is a big factor in its success. It makes the experience of playing the game meaningful as we can share our success with friends and peers. The social rewards might only be part of the reason for Wordle’s success.
It’s also free and without ads so it does not appear unscrupulous at all. It is also engaging and challenging in the right amount. Six tries are usually enough to get to the secret word. The set of possible words decreases rapidly after each try, and anchoring them around the clues makes it challenging but not extremely hard. It is the combination of these factors that make it so appealing. It is also a game that requires very little attention and time as it can appear only once per day. This builds anticipation for the next day and adds to the excitement around the game.
Finally, here’s a list of all the Wordle words of 2022 and their meanings. Let’s master five-letter words, one day at a time.
Please consider following me if you enjoyed the article. I’m new to the platform and I would really appreciate your support.
