Millions of people around the world search Wordle for a five-letter word every day. The net hit now has many imitators, where songs, countries or footballers can also be guessed.
Berlin/New York – The online letter puzzle “Wordle” seems to be the trend game of the year – every day millions of people worldwide search for the word of the day.
Software developer Josh Wardle’s game was originally intended as a gift for his girlfriend. Then “Wordle” was launched as a web application – and took the web by storm. Meanwhile, there are some crazy adaptations and statistics.
An overview of a hype and its consequences:
The game:
With “Wordle”, users have six attempts to guess a five-letter word. There are color hints after each attempt: letters that have been placed correctly are colored green, letters that do not appear are colored gray. If a letter occurs but not at the typed position, it turns yellow.
The success:
Two factors favor the success of “Wordle”: There is only one Wordle puzzle every day. In addition, users can forward their results to friends via social networks such as Twitter or WhatsApp without giving the word away. So a player can show pride when they guessed the word of the day in two tries – or dramatically in the last try. The success speaks for itself: according to the New York Times Company, Wordle is now played by millions of people every day. The parent company of the “New York Times” took over the game at the end of January – according to the publisher at a price in the “lower seven-digit range”.
The variants:
Since there is only one Wordle each day, there is plenty of scope for imitators. For players who can’t get enough, there are now numerous alternatives on the market. For German “Wordle” fans there is “Wördl” and “6mal5”, where German words can be guessed. With “Hello Wordl” or “WordGuessr” you can specify the desired length of the words in advance, with “Octordle” you can guess eight terms at the same time. “Heardle” is for music experts: It’s about songs that you have to guess based on their opening sequences. In “Worldle” a country has to be recognized by its outlines, while “Nerdle” is for those who love numbers. Sports fans can guess footballers based on data in “Who Are Ya?” – with this application, however, the “Wordle” hype then changes gently in the direction of the game “Who am I?”.
When there’s a lot of hype, parody versions aren’t far away either: In “Sweardle” you look for swear words and curses, in “Absurdle” the word you’re looking for is changed during the puzzle round to make it difficult for the player. In “Letterle” a letter has to be guessed correctly – so this is more for friends of the toss of a 26-sided coin.
The idea:
The idea for the game is much older. In 1987, the TV game show “Lingo” started in the USA with a very similar principle. Two years later, an adaptation became a long-running hit on Dutch television, later in France and most recently in the UK. In Germany, the “Lingo” adaptation “5 times 5” was broadcast on Sat.1 from 1993 to 1994.
The hype:
At first only developer Wardle and his girlfriend Palak Shah dealt with the game. After releasing in October 2021, “Wordle” was played by 90 people on November 1, according to Wardle. Two months later it was 300,000 people, shortly afterwards “Wordle” surpassed the million mark – and the trend is constantly increasing. “If you’re like me, you wake up every morning thinking about Wordle,” said Jonathan Knight, general manager of The New York Times Games. “It brought us all a little more together.” It’s just a fun game, Wardle told the New York Times. “It’s something that encourages you to do it for three minutes a day. Not more.”
Since “Wordle” has already conquered almost the entire world, the creators of the “WordTips” website evaluated thousands of tweets using geodata and created a country ranking. According to this, the Swedes are the Wordle kings, they need an average of 3.72 tries. Germany is in the middle with 4.01 attempts.
A tip for potential beginners: Tinkerers have found perfect starting terms that contain as many frequently occurring letters as possible. In both the English and German versions, players with “Adieu” and “Agent” do particularly well. dpa
