“Have you played the Wordle today?” This is a question that is starting to be heard by more and more people every day as the word game craze takes over the country. Wordle was created by Josh Wardle as a game to keep himself and his partner entertained. They made the game public in October of 2022 and had only 90 active players as of November 1st. The game grew to about 300,000 players by the middle of January, and at the time of writing this article it has far exceeded a million players according to the New York Times.

Wordle is an online game where players have six guesses to try and figure out what the 5-letter word of the day is. When you guess a word, the letters will be highlighted a certain color to help you narrow down your guess. If a letter is yellow it means it is included in the word, but it is not in the correct spot. If a letter is green, it means that it is the correct letter and in the right spot. If a letter is gray it simply means that it is not in the word. The game is incredibly simple, and that is what makes it so great. The other feature that makes Wordle so popular is the fact it comes out only once a day.

Since everyone gets the same puzzle each day, it is a common thing that people can talk about. Avid Wordle player Cooper Kelley says that he “Loves that there’s only one one word a day because it’s something to look forward to.” Dylan Brandano, a huge fan of the game, says, “I really like how you can share how you did with your friends.” This sudden rise in popularity did not go unnoticed, and the rights to the game were recently purchased by the New York Times for a price in “The low seven figures”.

There are concerns that the New York Times will cause Wordle to lose many of the features people love. The Times offers a subscription for a games section of their website, and there are fears that people will have to pay to play Wordle.As of right now you can find the daily puzzle by just googling Wordle. Regardless of its future, the sudden rise of Wordle is certainly worth noting.