By: Maya Song

Wordle was invented in 2013 by Josh Wardle. ‘Wordle’ was originally named ‘Mr. Bugs’ Wordy Nugz’. The game was inspired by the game ‘Mastermind’s’ color matching mechanics.

Another reason the game was made was because Josh Wardle’s partner was a word game enthusiast. ‘Wordle’ was bought from Josh Wardle, the software engineer, in January of 2022 for a price “in the low seven figures”, the New York Times said.

In the game ‘Wordle’ you have six tries to guess a five letter word. Throughout the game you will be able to see what letters are correct and incorrect notated by a colored background of the letter. When you put a letter in the right spot the letter’s background turns green. If the letter’s background is yellow it means that the letter is in the word but in an incorrect spot. The grey background means that the letter is not in the word at all.

Science Foundation Ireland says that the best word to start with in ‘Wordle’ is “Tales.” It is said that using this word has a 95% success rate and the game ends with an average of 3.66 rounds. A recommended two word strategy is using the word “Cones” and following it with the word “Trial.” This combination leads to 96% of the target words in ‘Wordle’.

When’ Wordle’s’ public release occurred in October 2021 the daily users went from 90 to approximately 300,000 within two months.

‘Wordle’ will eventually run out of 5 letter words as there are slightly more than 2,300 5 letter words. Tracy from the New York Times says that when this time occurs ‘Wordle’ could recycle words, or start using plural, and past tense words.

Once ‘Wordle’ became popular many other games similar to ‘Wordle’ were made. Games like ‘Absurdle,’ where after each guess the word changes while the hints still work for the new answer. Other games like ‘Sweardle’ for swear words and ‘Weddle’ based off of NFL players.