Random squares have been gracing the feeds of multiple social media platforms, especially facebook. The growing trend is not some secret code, but instead this latest internet sensation that has taken the nerdy, word lovers by storm is none other than “Wordle”.
“Wordle” is a word game that was created by Brooklyn software engineer, Josh Wardle.
The game begins the same every round: users have six guesses to guess a five letter word from scratch. For each word, if a player guesses a letter in the final word, the letter turns yellow. If they guess a correct letter and in the correct spot in the word, the letter turns green. Users keep going until they either guess the word of the day, or run out of tries.
The word of the day resets every 24 hours, right at midnight, and each day the word is the same for everyone. The only day this was not true was the day “Wordle” switched from being its own website to being a part of the official New York Times website. That day many users still logged onto the original “Wordle” website, which can now only be accessed via a former active link for the website. It can not easily be searched as it was once able to be.
“Wordle” was first released in October of last year, and has since amassed millions of daily users. What started as a personal project for Wardle has now become an internet sensation in a matter of months. Wardle sold the platform to the New York Times for an undisclosed but low 7 figure deal.
Since the spike in popularity of “Wordle”, many websites have been actively trying to recreate the experience of the simple game, and some even trying to intensify the game.
One of the most memorable recreations are “Wordle Unlimited”, which is the same basic concept, just with unlimited words, so users do not have to wait until the next day to play again. This website also allows for users to create custom wordles which can be sent to friends and family, or posted on social media to share.
“Quordle” and “Octordle” are two fan favorites as well. “Quordle” has users solving four words at once with nine total guesses, and “Octordle” has users solving eight words within 13 guesses. These websites are certainly for the more intense players as they are a much stronger challenge than the original game. Solving one word at a time can be tricky, but solving many words at the same time with a technically smaller number of chances per word is especially a doozy. For most people that do the puzzles such as “Quordle” and “Octordle”, they sometimes spend hours on the one puzzle, writing everything out and being able to make guesses meticulously.
Some of the “Wordle” spin offs have little to nothing to do with the original game; for example: “Heardle” is a new version of the game designed for music lovers. “Heardle”, while it may be modeled after the ever popular “Wordle”, is more of a music guessing game than word guessing. It is played in rounds, and after each round the user guesses a song that will be from a list of already given songs. While “Heardle” may be riding on the coattails of “Wordle’s” fame, people that like “Wordle” because of the word game aspect may feel some disappointment towards “Heardle”.
Regardless of what “Wordle” game you play, there is a version out there for everyone (even one called “Fartsle” if you are into toilet humor) and most people on the internet will tell you it’s worth checking out at least once.
Sources: The New York Times
Josh Steen 
Chloe Rupe 
Grace Nealy